West Lafayette, IN: how dark is the sky here?

West Lafayette 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. That's brighter than 18.4% of the 3,206 US 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.

How far West Lafayette is from a meaningfully darker sky

Zionsville, IN, about 45 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than West Lafayette. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How West Lafayette compares nationally

West Lafayette, IN has a population of about 46,338, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. West Lafayette places 586 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.