Waynesville, NC's night sky, measured from orbit

Waynesville 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 13% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Waynesville.

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

How far Waynesville is from a meaningfully darker sky

Oak Ridge, TN, about 80 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Waynesville. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Waynesville compares nationally

About 10,709 people live in Waynesville, NC, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Waynesville places 416 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.