What are some ways to measure sky brightness?
- The Lightmeter-Network
Recently developed light meters continuously measure the night sky brightness at many locations around the globe to monitor changes and provide an unbiased reference for the unaided eye measurements within constellations. Adopt a light meter and record the brightness of the night sky in your city, at your school or at your observatory. You need: (1) a computer with USB and Windows XP/NT/2000, (2) a place with a good view of the sky within 20 meters of the computer, and (3) about 100 Euros for the light meter. To get a Lightmeter download the Lightmeter request forms, fill in the data and mail it to lightmeter@astronomy2009.at For more information, visit http://lightmeter.astronomy2009.at/.
- Measurements of Light Pollution in the Netherlands
Wim Schmidt is a member of the well-known dark skies awareness group in the Netherlands called Platform Lichthinder. Over four years he has made measurements of the night sky brightness using a digital camera and 2 Sky Quality Meters (SQM) made by Unihedron. The measurements were made for a few of the local Dutch governments. He has collected SQM measurements at 850 locations in the Netherlands and digital camera images at 1500 locations. All measurements were taken in the zenith with a clear sky and when there were no lights in the first 100 meters. A map of the SQM measurements is shown. Note that the higher the number, the darker the sky (less light pollution).
- Using a Digital SLR camera to monitor light pollution
- Sky Quality Meter monitoring of the night sky at the Zselic Landscape Protection Area
- Sky Brightness Nomogram
- Light Pollution in Hong Kong
