Starlight Cascade Sky Quality Meter
Page Created: 2005 July 21
Page Last Updated: 2021 December 14
The Sky Quality here is between 21.1 and 21.2 magnitudes/arcsec^2 (20050730 - 20050816)
20070716: 21.22 - no moon, clear sky)
Latest Data
Sky Quality Meter (SQM) readings (taken manually, hoping for a data logging SQM soon!) (high=darker):Background
We were at a meeting of the NYAA in the spring of 2005 in Toronto where Dr. Doug Welch from McMaster University talked about measuring light pollution using a custom built Sky Quality Meter. Being very interested in Responsible Lighting and Light Pollution (RASC-KC RASC IDA ), we purchased one, had it delivered shortly and started using it. The "Sky Quality Meter" measures the brightness of the night sky in magnitudes per square arcsecond. At a recent NYAA StarBQ Observing Session north of Cobourne, we tested our unit aside two others and got readings within 0.1 of each other.
 Mark 1 |  Mark 2. | In early July 2005 our unit was recalled for a calibration error and another bug that surfaced during the beta testing, that of the exposed switch being pressed when in storage. |
Some of the data tables items needed are: date, time, location, astronomical twilight time for that day, cloud cover, and the actual three readings (within one minute to track accuracy). Here is a Sample Data Recording Sheet in a small adobe acrobat file.
With this data we hope to monitor the long term (years) Sky Quality (light Pollution) levels, possible short term (local lighting changes), provide a baseline of data for our location to compare to other locations.