On March 14 (Pi day) together with Clear Sky Blog we will host a "Flashmob for Science" event in Park am Gleisdreieck. You can register (and let your friends know about it) on Facebook, and you can read more about the event (in German) on this Clear Sky Blog post or from Wissenschaft im Dialog.
The idea behind our Flashmob for Science events is to understand how much variation there is between observations from different users. Everyone has slightly different eyesight, different phone displays, and a different threshold for what counts as "seeing" a star. On top of that, the order of the stars we suggest and accidental mis-identifications can affect the result (which is why viewing more than the minimum 8 stars is a good idea!). These differences aren't a problem for the science, as long as we understand how large the variation due to them is.
Our first-ever Flashmob for Science in 2012 was a relatively small affair. This time we're aiming for a much larger event. The more participants we have, the better our understanding of these variations will be! So please come and join us in Berlin on March 14!
Note: When deciding whether a star is "visible" or not, the best technique is to say it's not visible unless you can always or nearly always see it with direct vision. If it only occasionally twinkles into view, say it's invisible or that you can only see it with averted vision.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Tweeted summary of our new paper about skyglow
We published a paper about skyglow today, in which researchers from 12 countries continuously measured the night sky brightness during the summers of 2011 and 2012. The paper is open access, so you can read it for free here!
Here are the highlights:
Here are the highlights:
At 7 of the sites in our new #LightPollution study, the sky was always at least 10 times brighter than a starlit sky: http://t.co/t7247Qb7sr
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015At 30 of the sites, the sky was at least twice as bright as a starlit sky at least 95% of the time: http://t.co/t7247Qb7sr
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015The relationship between typical brightness of overcast and clear skies changes at city limits http://t.co/t7247Qb7sr pic.twitter.com/xy9iUIazsx
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015Here we compare the sky brightness as the moon rises over Berlin and IDSR Westhavelland. In Berlin, the sky darkens! pic.twitter.com/g82CQ59afi
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015@skyglowberlin This is because the city gets darker as the night goes on, and Berlin's glow is so much brighter than the glow from the moon.
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015Here we compare the entire moon-free data set for 2 sites in 1 plot. NSU is how bright it is compared to a starry sky pic.twitter.com/0adxUvWl61
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015The top plot is Kitt Peak in Arizona, the bottom is near the center of Berlin.
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015In areas without artificial light, overcast nights are WAY brighter when the moon is up (1/2) http://t.co/t7247Qb7sr pic.twitter.com/MZFgAk1nsB
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015In contrast, in areas with a lot of light pollution, the moon's effect on overcast nights is almost absent (2/2) pic.twitter.com/ePxDixPbdm
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015You can read the whole article for free! It's published #openaccess at @SciReports: http://t.co/t7247Qb7sr
— Christopher Kyba (@skyglowberlin) February 12, 2015
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