What the night sky looks like over Sweetwater, TX

Satellite radiance puts Sweetwater 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. That's brighter than 43.5% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.

The number comes from orbit, not a stargazer's logbook, so treat it as an estimate of sky glow rather than a certified Bortle class.

How far Sweetwater is from a meaningfully darker sky

138 miles from Sweetwater, straight-line, sits Mineral Wells, TX, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Sweetwater's own suburban edge band.

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

Sweetwater against the rest of the dataset

Sweetwater, TX has a population of about 10,196, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Sweetwater ranks 1,387 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.