Sterling, CO Night Sky Brightness
Sterling, CO's night sky, measured from orbit
Satellite radiance puts Sterling in the suburban edge band. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 38.9% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Sterling.
Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
How far Sterling is from a meaningfully darker sky
84 miles from Sterling, straight-line, sits Evans, CO, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Sterling's own suburban edge band.
Evans, CO is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Sterling compares nationally
About 13,114 people live in Sterling, CO, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Sterling's position, 1,242 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.