Tucson, AZ Night Sky Brightness
How dark is the sky in Tucson, AZ?
Tucson reads as suburban edge on this dataset's scale. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Only 15.6% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Tucson.
Worth remembering: this is satellite radiance, not a ground observation. A true Bortle rating needs a human eye at night, this is the closest large-scale substitute, covered fully in the Bortle scale guide.
The nearest darker sky to Tucson
16 miles from Tucson, straight-line, sits Sahuarita, AZ, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Tucson's own suburban edge band.
Sahuarita, AZ is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
Tucson against the rest of the dataset
About 554,013 people live in Tucson, AZ, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Ranked against the other 3,206 cities here by the methodology guide's own sampling, Tucson comes in at 497, darkest to brightest.