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Rating

Dark Skies

Scale56-100

Graded like school, from F (56) to A+ (100). Higher is better.

About This Ranking

Goal

Highlight places with darker night skies, where less artificial light from towns and cities within 300 km washes out the stars. Modeled from NASA night lights, not measured.

Sources

Data behind the rating

1 source

NASA Black Marble yearly night lights

2025 yearly composite (VNP46A4, collection 2)
Data
Light escaping upward at night across the United States and nearby Canada and Mexico, seen by the VIIRS satellite sensor and corrected for moonlight, clouds, and the atmosphere, turned into sky glow with a published model calibrated on National Park Service sky measurements.
What it tells us
Estimates how much artificial light brightens the whole night sky, as a multiple of the natural sky; it is not measured on the ground.

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Part of the Lifestyle pack, with

Pleasant day-to-day outdoor conditions, personalized seasonal temperatures, snowfall, humidity and precipitation, distinct seasons, sunny skies, weather reliability, wind, air pollution, smoke, and weather-related hazards.