Wilmette, IL's night sky, measured from orbit

Wilmette 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 31.4% 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 Wilmette is from a meaningfully darker sky

Bartlett, IL, about 24 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Wilmette. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How Wilmette compares nationally

Wilmette, IL counts roughly 27,443 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Wilmette places 1,003 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.