Lightmeters

Hi,

Günther Wuchterl at the University of Tattenburg developed a light meter for IYA2009 which is designed to be an easy to use USB meter to measure light pollution. Details of the device are at lightmeter.astronomy2009.at (login Guest and IYA2009 - 'Anmelden' means 'login' btw)

The unit costs €100. Myself and Michael are thinking of getting a couple of units so we thought we'd ask here in case anyone else is interested and we can save on the postage. Ideally we're looking for people who can install the device permanently and send results back[1]. The goal is to have 100 of these installed around Europe.

The SQM that some of you may be familiar with also has an ethernet enabled version which sells for $249 (+p&p +vat). That also isn't waterproof so you'd need to make a housing and also requires a separate power supply.) However if any of you do have an SQM (any version) please let us know so we can gather your data.

So please have a look through the site mentioned above and see if you are interested. Feel free to discuss the units here and if you have questions that you don't find answers on the website for I'll relay your questions to Gunter and get you some answers.

Cheers,
~Al

[1] Currently the data is stored at the center for astronomy in Heidelberg but we may try and maintain our own database to link in with the SQM measurements in future also. But thats for another discussion!

Been a usb device, you obviously need a pc on for it.
Is there any constraints regarding the lenght of the usb cable?
Are you more interested in seeing if a dark site is remaining a dark site or are you interested in monitoring what happening inside a city ? where are you prioritising these sensors.

Al,

I have been using a Unidron SQM the last few years. It's a manual version with no connection
to a PC. I use it to test the state of the sky transparency before any worthwhile observing.

Eamonn A

www.kingslandobservatory.com

Hi Dave,

Dave_Lillis wrote:

Been a usb device, you obviously need a pc on for it.
Is there any constraints regarding the lenght of the usb cable?

USB is limited to about 5 meters. You can extend that with powered USB hubs if needed I think.

Are you more interested in seeing if a dark site is remaining a dark site or are you interested in monitoring what happening inside a city ? where are you proiritising these sensors.

Any data would be good to be honest. There will be fixed ones in TCD and Armagh and probably Michael observatory. Mine will be mobile. If we could get one positioned an online in a dark sky site that would be very valuable if someone had such a site.

Al,

I would be interested in joining. I have a dark site here. Intentionally located the observatory permanently here because of the dark skie. I see that Unihedron have an ethernet-enabled SQM model for night-time sky brightness monitoring for 170 euros. Price $249.99US plus Shipping & Handling.

Eamonn A

Right so thats just Me and Michael interested then.

Eamonn, I'll pass your contact details on to Brian Espey.

Thanks