I've glanced at the data, and have some very preliminary results: Based on the SQM measurement (18.35 mag/arcsec2) we would estimate a naked eye limiting magnitude around 4.25, but the seeing wasn't the greatest, so I'd expect something smaller. Using my (very preliminary) maximum likelihood estimation code, the average of each of the observations was 3.9, with a standard deviation of 0.7. If we include only the "highly consistent" observations, then the mean was 3.8 with a standard deviation of 0.5. This is quite promising, because we found that the standard deviation of GLOBE at Night observations from March, 2012 was 1.2 stellar magnitudes.
These preliminary numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, both because my code is a work in progress and because we didn't have a very big crowd. Now that we've gained some experience, I hope that we'll be able to hold a much bigger event either near the end of October or else when it warms up in the spring. If you live someplace warmer and would like to host your own "Flashmob for Science" event in the coming months, please contact me!
Still photos:
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| Citizen scientist doing fieldwork by Alejandro Sanchez de Miguel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. |
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| The youngest star of the night |
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| Star observations with the Loss of the Night app by Alejandro Sanchez de Miguel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. |
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| Learning more about the constellations after the event |
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| Thanks to everyone who came! |
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