Wendell, NC's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts Wendell 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 14.4% 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 Wendell is from a meaningfully darker sky

11 miles from Wendell, straight-line, sits Clayton, NC, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Wendell's own suburban edge band.

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

How Wendell compares nationally

Wendell, NC counts roughly 16,845 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Wendell places 460 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.