Surprise, AZ Night Sky Brightness
Surprise, AZ's night sky, measured from orbit
Satellite radiance puts Surprise in the rural band. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. Only 3.5% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Surprise.
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.
Where to go for a darker sky near Surprise
The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Peoria, AZ, roughly 12 miles away in a straight line, rated dark sky. Road distance will be more.
Peoria, AZ is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Surprise compares nationally
Surprise, AZ counts roughly 167,564 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Surprise's position, 113 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.