Vienna, VA Night Sky Brightness
Vienna, VA: how dark is the sky here?
Satellite radiance puts Vienna in the suburban band. Light dome dominates much of the sky. Only the brightest stars and planets stand out clearly. Vienna's sky is brighter than 60.3% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.
This comes from a satellite measuring light radiating upward, not a person's eyes on the ground, so it isn't the same as a Bortle class, though the two track each other closely - see the Bortle scale guide for where they can disagree.
How far Vienna is from a meaningfully darker sky
The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is New Carrollton, MD, roughly 21 miles away in a straight line, rated suburban edge. Road distance will be more.
New Carrollton, MD is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Vienna compares nationally
Vienna, VA has a population of about 16,562, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Vienna places 1,924 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order, ranked by the method in the methodology guide.