Using a Digital Camera to Measure Light Pollution

Actually observing the sky through the campus Steward Observatory telescope brought perspective to just how lucky we are in Tucson to have such amazing resources to study the sky. The location of the telescope is amazing; right in the middle of our historic campus which allows the general public accessibility to something that might otherwise be reserved for astronomers or scientists. Having a 21” telescope to view the night sky expands the field of view that wouldn’t be as wide-ranging with an ordinary telescope. Having looked through telescopes that were probably 4.5” previously, I wasn’t really sure what to expect looking through a scientific version. Clear weather in late November and having a night sky ordinance in Tucson also allows optimum viewing opportunities year round. “Thanks to a local ordinance that strictly limits artificial-light pollution, Tucson supposedly has the darkest night skies of any city its size in the country.” "Seeing Stars in Tucson 's Brilliant Night Sky." The Washington Post. WP Company, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. “For a city of 500,000, Tucson is an astonishingly good place for stargazing.” I was already aware that the magnification quality of the telescope influences exactly what is visible through the eyepiece. Knowing a telescope’s optical system captures an image like a camera lens. I realized my eyes had to adjust to the dark. At first I had a difficult time seeing things until I

To introduce color composites, histograms, and scatterplots as tools for exploring image data stored in database channels

The stars are bright and radiant-- their numbers are vast beyond all imagination. They shine in the dark sky, like billions of little lights hanging from nonexistent threads. It is a reality that not many people stop to admire. In the city people sink down into their couches at night and drift away, eventually, to the slumber that most people crave. But the stars, shining endlessly, are there night after night, in the rain and even in the snow. If you just stop for a moment, on a night with no clouds, and look up, you will see this magnificent

In the Los Angeles Times 2012 article “Let There Be Dark”, author Paul Bogard’s main purpose is to persuade his audience that natural darkness should be preserved. Paul Bogard describes the “smoky trails” left by meteors in the Minnesota summer night skies and the problem of light pollution diminishing the “irreplaceable value” of our natural darkness.

In response to our society’s growing reliance on artificial light, writer Paul Bogard argues that natural darkness should be preserved in his article, “Let there be dark”. He effectively builds this argument by using a personal anecdote, allusions to art and history as well as rhetorical questions.

The craving of knowledge is something that has shaped the human race to what it is today. As humans, it's a necessity to have something to kindle a person’s flame of curiosity. Since the beginning of time, the world has always gazed up into the sky on a starry night and asked “what there is out there; what made this stunning view?”, “How immense is this vast expansion of space?”. These inquiries could be answered now that humans are capable of space exploration with the mechanization NASA and other space agencies have now, and will possibly take advantage of in upcoming years. The use of the stars has been very beneficial to humans, whether it’s navigation, religion, or something to spark the imaginations of many. The technology that astronauts

Paul Bogard builds an argument by trying to convince people that light pollution is bad. Bogard also lists some negative effects of our, "nights growing brighter." He begins to list examples of how brighter nights have affected the human race in the short amount of time light has been available. One example he gives is that darkness allows our body to produce melatonin. Obviously, if more light is being used, this hinders humans from producing this hormone, which could lead to negative effects.

In long stagnant societies only rays of light can bring progress and help brighten the darkness of the human condition. People often discriminate against minorities or people who refuse to conform to the normal social standards. This inhibits progress because unless the entire population feels safe enough to be who they truly are than the earth is losing much of its potential hidden in the minds of the oppressed. Rays of light can be advantageous when spreading the simple concept of equality and the radical idea that treating everyone with love and respect will lead to a better tomorrow. The world will always be forever changed by rays of light and the good they do because even the smallest drop in the middle of the ocean will eventually reach the

In the passage of "Let there be dark" Paul Bogard the author tries to convince the reader that light pollution has turned into a big epidemic, and that we are losing the darkness because of it. Throughout the entire discourse he uses many methods such as persuasive diction, soft tone, and factual evidence to propose his argument. The passage shows a well amount of each of these and provides the reader with many good points. The author uses persuasive diction such as "Irreplaceable value" "diminish" and "losing" to acknowledge the value that the darkness has, and to explain the impacts that we are causing due to our overuse of artificial light.

Our Civilisation has relied on a night sky full of stars for billions of years. Since then it has been washed out in man made light. Lights fascinate me and so did this feature length documentary.

The system should be visually inspected which means a tower climb or a high-resolution drone video to each of the lighting fixtures – all beacons and sidelights. The inspection should look for “ultraviolet (UV) damage, cracks, crazing, dirt buildup, etc.” The “etc.” in this instance could include unwanted deposits on the outside of the lens (think bird poop as an example), or unwanted deposits on the inside of the lens. LumenServe℠ has seen instances where material inside a legacy lighting system, such as certain types of tape, are vaporized and then deposited on the inside of the lens. This is a result of a poor installation and must be addressed. Certain older models of lighting lenses are made of older plastics that are effected by UV rays resulting in crazing. Old glass lenses can chip. The bottom line is the inspection relies on the reasonable judgement of the inspector to determine if the lens performance is degraded in some manner and decreasing the system’s certified output. No light meter or measurement is required, just a thorough inspection and reasonable determination of the status of each lens.

Wentzel noted, my team and I can notice the impact that light pollution has when trying to observe and locate astronomy topics in the night sky. All of the light post and lit up building on campus make the night above us (our Zenith) very blurry and make it difficult to locate a star constellation or planets that can be seen. An illustration that can be given to compare this is an example of a camera lens. If one is attempting to take an HD picture with a camera that is capable of doing such a thing, and after taking a picture multiple times the photo is coming our blurry or smudged. The camera lens perhaps just needs to be wiped and clean, after doing the cleaning the quality of the picture is finally becoming clear and the results are what were expected. This light pollution doesn’t just affect students or Dr. Wentzel’s time from observing the night sky, it also affects the animals around campus (as discussed previously). Thus, the question is, how can the Milligan community limit or eliminate light

Since I was a child, I would marvel at the night sky- separating stars, planets, galaxies, and even the once-in-a-while helicopter from each other. Space had fascinated my soul, which subjects are rarely able to do in one’s life. The love I have for the universe came from a place within that I was never able to identify, that is, until I found a way to capture my need to learn more, through the NASA SEES Summer Internship.

Now since all of you are all five I have to tell you the story my chief told me forty years ago when I was your age. Now lets begin, Long ago, before you and I were born, the sky chief ordered his son down to earth, where there was no light at night. The sky chief's son was named Lusio which means light. Lusio’s job was to find something that would light the sky up. The great fireball in the sky only lit up the sky for half of the day. At night, the fireball went away and the sky turned dull and black like the fur of all the black bears in the woods. This meant that

3. Presents the software description. It explains the implementation of the project using PIC C Compiler software.