Activity

Given a clear sky tonight I plan to be at Root River Park to take dark sky readings with and without the Unihedron housing window in place.  This is necessary to confirm the estimated 0.15 offset to the reading due to the housing glass window.

Nice. Thanks.

For clarity:

NELM = Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude
MPSAS = Magnitude per square Arc-Second

I think I’ll make a chart using the info on that link and see if I can look at the sky and get the same result.

The above link provides equations to convert magnitude per square second (MPSAS) to naked eye limiting magnitude (NELM) and visa versa. Simply enter the meter reading and click on the ‘calculate’ box. I’ll show this at our meeting Tuesday, 6/9.

Here is information regarding the Unihedron Sky Quality Meter readings and correlation to naked eye visual magnitudes. The information is found on page 15 of the instruction manual and this is the link: http://www.unihedron.com/projects/darksky/NELM2BCalc.html

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I’d like to get set up before dark (9:00-ish), but I don’t always get out when I think I will. Regardless, it won’t be long after.</p>

What time are you thinking of going out?

Can’t make the public outreach, but I am planning on hitting Root River to do some observing.

If anybody wants to join me, I’d be happy to have the company.

Duane

Thanks Jeff! It’s great to have for journaling.

Duane

Thanks Josef! (BTW, the park is in Olmsted County!)

Great, now we have darkness values. I included your  data plot into the article Root River Park 2024. Any suggestions for editing are welcome.

Good night at Root River Park 6-29-2024. Excellent turnout of members and visitors and great member/visitor discussions were heard.
I used the Unihedron Sky Quality Meter to record sky darkness. An annotated plot of the data is attached. Max darkness 20.91 mag/arc-sec2.

Thanks for sharing about the dark sky meter. I’m eager to see what we get out of it over the year.

A friend of mine liked this photo better, and I have to agree—so I’m posting it as well.

17-Long-Arm-of-the-Milky-Way

16-Root-River-Galaxy

Milky Root River