Night sky conditions over Flarestar Observatory

The picture above shows the skyline from the observatory's site during moon rise above the sea. This image reveals that indeed, Flarestar is located within an urban environment with sky conditions typical of a sub urban area.  Despite being located within a high densly populated area, scientific observations could still be acquired. The site yields stars as faint as magnitude 5.1 during the best nights.

Despite that prevailing night sky conditions are well known, the actual intensity of light pollution was never determined for this site. In order to rectify this, light pollution surveys were carried out to establish the direction and light pollution intensity over the observatory's site.

Results from sky survey depicts sky glow intensity in units of mag/arcsec^2. These measurements were acquired through the use of a Sky Quality Meter (SQM) by Unihedron and built through a specialized software to interpolate between data points.

The Light Pollution Map produced on the right was based on the measurements acquired on the night of September 11/12, 2015. The map shows that due to light pollution, the darkest area is not overhead as expected but is somewhat displaced to the North-West. The map also reveals that sky glow to the South-East nearly extends up to 60 degrees altitude. Such information is useful to determine optimal times when celestial objects are best imaged. Such information is particularly useful when imaging faint deep sky objects.

From the observatory's site it is possible to image objects as faint as magnitude +20.1 V through the observatory main CCD camera.  This shows that despite the site does not enjoy optimal conditions, it is still possible to produce scientifically valuable results without the need to travel to dark sites. Additionally, the permanent set-up allows equipment to be instantly available for observation. 

This image shows the opposite direction of the image shown above at the header of this page.

The sky glow intensity of the night sky over Flarestar varies considerably due to the site's proximity to built up areas. As the night wears on, certain artificial light sources are switched off with the consequence of improved dark sky conditions. The graph below shows the magnitude per square arc second readings taken over the course of a typical night (up to 02:12 Local Time). Additional data taken on different nights continue to support this trend.

Data shows that as the night matures, light pollution intensity decrease as certain artificial light sources are switch off for the night. The decrease in light pollution brings about darker conditions.

Light Pollution Map

This is the latest light pollution map that depicts the sky in polar projection. The zenith is located at the centre of the map. The perimeter of the circle represents the sky at 20 degrees above the horizon. Each red dot represents a measurement through the SQM meter. [Copyright - Flarestar Observatory, 2015].

​The seven second time lapse below depicts the telescope tracking the stars at sidereal rate for a duration of nearly six hours. Notice the change of sky glow intensity by light pollution as the night weared on.  The clip constitutes 313 frames with an exposure duration of 30 seconds each.