The GLOBE at Night Program:
an NSN Teleconference on
Local Leaders in Dark Sky Advocacy
Connie Walker
National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)
Tucson, Arizona
and
Chuck Bueter
www.nightwise.org, Granger, Indiana
Feb. 5, 2008
NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Light pollution is a global
issue with local solutions…
Feb. 5, 2008
NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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If you have ever been curious
about…
• Why should we care about light pollution?
• How light pollution can be minimized?
• How do we measure light pollution?
• How do we expand this citizen-scientist
experience to our outreach programs?
• And how can we be involved with the
International Year of Astronomy 2009?
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Here is what we will discuss….
• Types of light pollution (briefly)
• A little on lighting
• Light pollution
education kits
• A little on shielding
• GLOBE at Night
• classic version
• digital version
• The International Year of Astronomy 2009
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Glare
Too much background light; can you see the stop
sign in the foreground? Can you read the sign below it?
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Light Trespass
Would you be able to sleep if your bedroom window
faced this neighbor’s light?
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Sky Glow
Lots of light scattering off particles in the air, giving
the appearance of a glowing sky…See any stars?
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Typical car lot?
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Much better!
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Now you see the person…sort of…
Here we see a student on the walkway.
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Now you don’t. (She moved about four feet.)
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Quality lighting…..
• Maximizes the desired effects by minimizing the
adverse effects:
–
–
–
–
–
Decreases glare, light trespass, sky glow
Increases safety and security
Conserves energy
Respects the habits & habitats of animals & plants
Maintains human health
•
•
•
•
Circadian rhythm (can impact immunology.)
Sleep disorders
The aging or disabled eye
Visibility (e.g., contrast)
– Provides good (nighttime) ambiance
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Keys to Quality Lighting
- See the effect, not the source.
-
Shine the light down.
No glare.
Light only where and when needed.
Don’t over light.
Use energy efficient sources.
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Unshielded Fixture
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Shielded Fixture
• Minimizes glare.
• Minimizes light
directed upward.
• Minimizes light
trespass.
• Controls the light
output.
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
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Not bad, but a good deal is wasted,
and the glare is too high for comfort.
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An optimal design! Note the added light
near the entrances where there is more need.
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GLOBE at Night
Light Pollution Education Kit
• 2 “Mini-lights” with batteries (Take out plastic disc between
batteries.)
• 1 white paper cube with holes on 2 sides (i.e., miniplanetarium)
• 1 white PVC cap + 2 toy figures
• 1 book called “There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars”
• 1 flashlight with a red balloon (to preserve one’s dark
adaptation)
• 2 D batteries for the flashlight
• 1 DVD called “Saving the Night”
• 1 “Our Globe at Night” poster
• 10 GLOBE at Night postcards
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A Demonstration on Shielding
Using the items in your Light Pollution Education Kit:
•
Make sure you are in a very dark room with a
low ceiling and a white surface.
•
Unscrew the reflectors from both “Mini-lights”
and turn 1 on (“candle mode”).
•
Place the bulb top of the “Mini-light” barely into
the big hole at the bottom of the white paper
cube.
•
With the room lights off, project the “stars” from
the white paper cube onto the ceiling.
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A Demonstration on Shielding,
continued…
•
Using the 2nd mag light as a “street light”,
place it on a table and turn it on.
•
What do you notice about the number of
stars?
•
Now place the PVC cap (or another
shield) above the 2nd mag light to
represent a shielded streetlight.
•
What difference do you notice with and
without the shield?
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Why should we care? (a review)
• We save money and energy;
• We improve safety for motorists and pedestrians;
• We increase security and the sense of well-being;
• We benefit animal habitats;
• We improve the quality of life;
• We lessen greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global
warming;
• We preserve the starry night.
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What can we do about this?
“A lack of awareness, rather than specific resistance, is
generally the biggest problem in controlling light
pollution.” - Kohei Narisada and Duco Schreuder
One path: Enable citizen-scientists to measure the quality of
their local skies and share their results with their communities.
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The GLOBE at Night Program
• Designed to aid teaching about the impact of artificial lighting on local
environments, and the ongoing loss of a dark night sky as a natural
resource for much of the world’s population.
• Citizen-scientists recorded the brightness of the night sky by matching
its appearance toward the constellation Orion with 1 of 7 stellar maps of
different limiting magnitudes.
• Measurements were submitted on-line and resulting maps of all
observations were created.
• March 2006: 18,000 citizen-scientists made 4600 observations from 96
countries the inaugural year!
• March 2007: An increase of 85% to 8500 observations
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Two Flavors of GLOBE at Night


The “classic” GLOBE at
Night observations that
anyone can have fun doing
with their unaided eyes.
A new effort to obtain precise
measurements of the night
sky using digital skybrightness meters, especially
to identify and preserve
urban dark-sky oases.
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http://www.globe.gov/GaN/
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To Get the Public Started…
Step #1. Find Your Latitude & Longitude
http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/observe_latlong.html
• GPS units
• Download “Google Earth” at http://www.earth.google.com
• http://www.itouchmap.com/?r=v&st=l2
Step #2. How do I find Orion?
http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/observe_finder.html
• Determine the darkest area where most stars visible.
• Wait 10 minutes for eyes to adapt to the dark.
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Step #3. Match Night Sky to a Magnitude Chart.
• Estimate cloud coverage.
Feb. 5, 2008
• Fill out the observation sheet. Downloadable
from Family Packet at
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/Gan2008ActivityPac
ket_Family.pdf.
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/report.cfm
http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/report.html
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Step #5. Compare Your Observation(s)
to Thousands Around the World
Limiting Magnitude 7
Limiting Magnitude 6
Limiting Magnitude 5
Limiting Magnitude 4
Limiting Magnitude 3
Limiting Magnitude 2
Limiting Magnitude 1
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/analyze.html
The darker dots represent darker skies & the brighter dots represent brighter skies.
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Zooming in with “Map Viewer”
85 miles
42 miles
5 miles
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NSN Telecon on GLOBE at Night
21 miles
11 miles
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Ancillary Materials for the Public
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/learn.html
• Magnitude of Stars
• Finding Orion (Interactive Tool)
• Orion Mythology
• Light Pollution
• Apparent Magnitude Changes
with Light Pollution and Affects of
Latitude Change with Orientation
of Orion (LP Interactive Tool)
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GLOBE at Night
A New Twist
• How can we expand the citizen-scientist experience?
• How can we make it more scientific?
• How can we make it more precise?
• How can we measure changes over time?
• Can we map a whole city in detail and identify oases?
We decided to take advantage of
a portable sky-brightness meter to
take the campaign to another level.
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The Sky Quality Meter
Press start button here:
Light enters here:
Read-out numbers here:
Sky-quality meters (SQMs) are built
by Unihedron in Ottawa, Canada.
Readings are repeatable to +/- 0.1
magnitude/square arcsec (Dr. Patrick
Seitzer at U. Michigan).
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The SQM is Easy to Use!
• Point the SQM directly above (at the
zenith). The SQM sensor is on the
same side as the display.
• The SQM should be held at or above
head level so that shadows or
reflections from your body do not
interfere with the reading.
• Avoid using in areas that are shaded
by trees or buildings.
•
After you press the button to take a reading, the SQM will beep
each second while it is accumulating photons. The beeping will
stop once the reading is ready to be viewed, face the SQM
towards you at this time to note the reading.
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Magnitudes and
Sky Quality Meter Readings
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What to Watch Out For
When Using the SQM
• The temperature in °C then °F is
displayed when you press and hold the
button a second time.
• Also the model and serial number is
displayed.
• The meter readings are somewhat
temperature dependent.
– Leave meter outside a few minutes before
taking measurements depending on the
temperature differential.
• ALSO: Avoid streetlights and buildings.
– Be at least as far from them as they are high.
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Data Input for SQM
• SQM Serial #
• Date and Local Time
• Latitude and Longitude
• Meter Reading (from sky brightness meter)
OPTIONAL INPUT:
• Participant's Name
• Cloud Cover and Moon Phase
• Comments on whether near a light, building tree; sky conditions,
etc.
• Outside Temperature, etc
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http://www.nightwise.org/form3.htm
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SQM Measurements vs Population Density
Tucson, Arizona
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SQM Measurements vs Nighttime Lights
Tucson, Arizona
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GLOBE at Night Wants You!
• Participate in
– unaided eye observations and
– sky brightness meter measurements
• With your kit and SQM:
– become a local coordinator of teachers/students
who would take measurements & report them online.
• By 2009, quantitative approaches will
be extended to other countries to make
a worldwide major impact during the
International Year of Astronomy!
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The Future: 2009
• GLOBE at Night campaign will expand to more
countries under auspices of International Year of
Astronomy (IYA) 2009
• “Dark Skies are a Universal Resource”: 1 of 9 major
US IYA themes
• US IYA GOAL: “To offer an engaging astronomy
experience to every person the country, and cultivate
partnerships to sustain public interest.”
• Coordinate with 3 commissions from the International
Astronomical Union Division XII:
– Astronomy Education & Development
– Protection of Existing & Potential Observatory Site
– Communicating Astronomy with the Public
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Contact Information
Connie Walker
cwalker@noao.edu
520-318-8535
National Optical
Astronomy Observatory
950 N. Cherry Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
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Sky Quality Meter
Outreach Kit Give-Away
• GLOBE at Night will be giving away five more
outreach kits at the end of the Q&A session.
• To qualify, you must be a member of a NSN club that
has not already won. Previous winners are:
Astronomical Society of Kansas City
Astronomical Society of Rowan County
Berks County Amateur Astronomical Society
BYU Astronomical Society
Celestial North
Estes Valley Astronomical Society
Kansas Astronomical Observers
Kopernik Astronomical Society
Latin School & Chicago Sidewalk Astronomy Club
Marquette Astronomical Society
Feb. 5, 2008
Miami Valley Astronomical Society
Morgan County Observatory Foundation
North Houston Astronomy Club
ORION, Inc.
Oglebay Astronomy Club
South Bay Astronomical Society
Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association
Twin City Amateur Astronomers
Warren Rupp Observatory
Westminster Astronomical Society, Inc.
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