Traverse City, MI's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts Traverse City 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 18.7% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.

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

How far Traverse City is from a meaningfully darker sky

36 miles from Traverse City, straight-line, sits Cadillac, MI, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Traverse City's own suburban edge band.

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

How Traverse City compares nationally

About 15,782 people live in Traverse City, MI, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Traverse City places 598 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.