University Place, WA's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts University Place 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 33.1% 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 University Place is from a meaningfully darker sky

4 miles from University Place, straight-line, sits Lakewood, WA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than University Place's own suburban edge band.

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

How University Place compares nationally

University Place, WA counts roughly 35,160 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. University Place places 1,057 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.