Walnut Creek, CA's night sky, measured from orbit

Walnut Creek's sky measures suburban edge here. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Walnut Creek's sky is brighter than 14.2% of the 3,206 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 Walnut Creek is from a meaningfully darker sky

Moraga, CA, about 6 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Walnut Creek. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Walnut Creek compares nationally

Walnut Creek, CA has a population of about 70,817, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Walnut Creek places 455 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.