What the night sky looks like over Wilmington, NC

Satellite radiance puts Wilmington in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Only 85.9% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Wilmington.

The number comes from orbit, not a stargazer's logbook, so treat it as an estimate of sky glow rather than a certified Bortle class.

Where to go for a darker sky near Wilmington

9 miles from Wilmington, straight-line, sits Leland, NC, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Wilmington's own urban band.

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

Wilmington against the rest of the dataset

Wilmington, NC has a population of about 125,284, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Wilmington ranks 2,738 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.