Be a Citizen Scientist, Your Head in the Stars
Jamie Kinscherff
In the last decade, Hays County’s population has increased by more than 100,000 people. Demographers have recently determined population growth in central Texas to be among the fastest in the country. With all this increased development, there has been a marked increase in artificial light at night. As a result, the night sky is rapidly diminishing. When I moved here 25 years ago, the Milky Way was easily visible in the naturally dark night sky. Now we can't see any stars from the horizon to 30° above, and we don’t often expect to see the Milky Way anymore. In fact, the naturally dark sky is key to the health and well-being of every living thing on the planet. Hays County Friends of the Night Sky (HCFNS) is leading an initiative to attract volunteers from all over the county to monitor these changes with a sky quality meter (SQM).
This handheld sky quality meter, the Unihedron SQM-L, can be taken to different locations to take sky quality readings, which may then be recorded and shared with our HCFNS Team and with the Globe at Night project.
These meters measure the brightness of the night sky in magnitudes per square arc second. In addition to the handheld version of the SQM in the picture, the project calls for some of the SQMs to be permanently installed at homes or secure public locations. Once installed, the unit, a Unihedron SQM-LU-DL, can be connected via USB port to a computer or tablet so that the data can be recorded for our Hays County use as well as sent to the Globe at Night international citizen science project, using their app at app.globeatnight.org. Preparations are under way to develop a Hays County dashboard for the information collected here. The data collected can be shared with city and county officials to help them understand the rapid changes happening here and perhaps inspire enforcement of the Dark Sky ordinances that many of our cities have in place. The County is not allowed to regulate outdoor lighting per Texas state law but can model responsible outdoor lighting and encourage others to do so too.
The cost of the SQM-LU-DL continuous monitor is normally $333 plus shipping, but with the discount it is $283 plus shipping. Because our Hays County project will be participating in the Globe at Night program, Unihedron is offering a discount here.
The cost of the SQM-L handheld monitor is normally $155 plus shipping, but with the discount it is $103 plus shipping. Here is the link to take advantage of the Globe at Night discount.
Thanks to Cindy Luongo Cassidy, HCMN, and Board President of both DarkSky Texas and HCFNS, for arranging the discounts.
Hays County Friends of the Night Sky will be seeking grants and other funding to help expand the program.
If you want to become a sky quality monitor, please consider contacting Hays County Friends of the Night Sky at hayscofns@gmail.com to join this citizen science effort. You can be a part of this important project!
John Cassidy shows us the SQM-LU-DL continuous meter installed in its weatherproof housing at his Onion Creek Observatory.
Cindy Cassidy is showing us the SQM-LU-DL continuous meter that resides down inside the weatherproof housing.
For more information about the Globe at Night, check out GlobeatNight.org. Enjoy two excellent articles about the Night Sky in recent issues of The Hays Humm: The Sky’s Silent Spring and Hays County Dusk to Dawn.
There will be training available for every participant in this sky monitoring program. HCMNs will also have more information about their volunteering for this Project, listed as HCMN #1108, Light Pollution.
