Reply To: Dark Skies and Satellites in the News

Forums Dark Skies Dark Skies and Satellites in the News Reply To: Dark Skies and Satellites in the News

#620296
Howard Lawrence
Participant

The publication last week of a thought provoking paper, by John C. Barentine, Stefan Wallner and Miroslav Kocifa, on the subject of monitoring night sky brightness (NSB) prompts a few questions:
Does your local observatory monitor night sky brightness routinely, using a SQM or other instruments and protocols?
Do you share your observations with the scientific community and if so how?
Should CfDS be involved in collating NSB observations of BAA members? A programme to do this was initiated but has stalled. Potentially, it could restart if sufficient volunteers take an interest.

The paper raises the issue of standardised NSB monitoring protocols. Here is a link. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stad3538/7425637
I would add that future satellite based methods of NSB monitoring are highly likely to be degraded because of changes in the night sky caused by massive deployment of communications satellites.