Suffern, NY's night sky, measured from orbit

Suffern's sky measures suburban edge here. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 43.5% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Suffern.

Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things.

How far Suffern is from a meaningfully darker sky

Ringwood, NJ, about 7 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Suffern. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

Ringwood, NJ is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.

How Suffern compares nationally

Suffern, NY counts roughly 11,537 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Suffern places 1,386 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.