South Dakota Tops U.S. Stargazing Rankings With Dark Skies

A Live Casinos ranking evaluated night-sky darkness and cloud cover across all 50 states, naming South Dakota the best state for stargazing with a 7.79/10 star-visibility score; about half the state lies in the darkest Bortle categories and annual cloud cover is around 11.65%, with Sanborn County highlighted as the prime viewing spot. Wyoming and Alaska also rank highly, followed by Montana, Arizona, Nevada, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Oregon.