Presented at the GHOU 2018 conference in Vienna, Austria from 13-15 August. http://handsonuniverse.org/ghou2018/program/

1. Globe at Night Citizen Science:
Assessing the Darkness of our Skies
1
ConnieWalker
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Photo Credit: BabakTafreshi (TWAN)

2. Light pollution is a global
issue with local solutions…

3. Energy, Safety & Cost
Human Health Wildlife
Light Pollution affects…
Astronomical Research

4. How to bring awareness & a
desire to slow down the
increase in light pollution?
(Cinzano, Falchi, and Elvidge 2001)

5. Globe at Night
http://www.globeatnight.org
5

6. Globe at Night
An Effective Worldwide Program
What: Invites citizen-scientists to
measure their night sky brightness
and submit their observations to a
website from a computer or smart
phone: www.globeatnight.org
Who: people aged 8 and up
When: 10-day campaigns each
month (no Moon in late evening)
Where: Anywhere; everywhere!
How many: Nearly 179,000
measurements from 180 countries in
the last 12 years.
6

7. • Offered 10 days every month all year
• Four different methods of data taking
• Translations into 28 languages for the
report page
• Translations into 21 languages for the
guides and postcards
• Platform independent
• On the fly mapping
• Infographics
• Evaluations
Globe at Night:
A Powerful EducationalTool

8. Good and Bad Lighting vs
How Many StarsYou Can See
8Vienna,Austria

9. No Orion data
Match Night Sky to a
Magnitude Chart.
Estimate cloud coverage.
Input location, date & time.

10. www.globeatnight.org/webapp/
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11. When did you make
your observations?
Where did you
make your
observations?
How dark is
the sky?
What are
the sky
conditions?
Did you use
a Sky
Quality
Meter?
2
3 4 5
6
Send data.
Globe at Night: 6 Simple Steps
1

12. 12
A more technically accurate
approach:
using Sky Quality Meters
• Light enters
here:
•Press start button
here:
• Read-out numbers
here:

13. Simple Report Form
Cell
Phone
Desktop/
Laptop
Measurements
• are downloadable as datasets in various formats
• can be examined online via Google Earth or other tools
• used as the basis of research in a classroom or science fair
project or even to inform the development of public policy
Tablet/Pad
13

14. Projects
• Compare data over time (changes,
trends)
• Compare data on population density
• Use in a lighting survey
• Search for dark sky oases
• Monitor ordinance compliance
• Study affects of light pollution on
animals or plants
• Study affects on human health
• Study affects on safety, security,
energy consumption, cost
Tucson, Arizona, USA14

15. How have Globe at Night
citizen-scientists made a
difference when assessing their
night sky?
15

16. 1st National Geographic BioBlitz
“Night Sky Inventory”
100 brighter at city center
than 40 km away (east)
2011
Boy Scouts Amateur
Astronomers
& the Public Park
Rangers

17. 2011
2012
Over 200 km from
Berlin to Leibniz
Highlights from Citizen
Scientists
2012

18. Highlights from
Citizen Scientists
1200 pts from
Montevideo, Uruguay
1800 pts; 1200 from Astrobaza
high schoolers in Poland.
2014
2015
18
2014

19. Impact of City Lights on
Lesser Long-nose Bat
19
3500 SQM measurements went into this contour map which also
shows paths of 13 bats avoiding city center  protect the corridor?

20. City-Wide Lighting Inventory
Norman, Oklahoma
1 km
N

21. Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation (District)
near South Bend, IN. Students asked, "How much
of the night sky have we already lost?”
5 km
North
A School District Campaign:
Near South Bend, Indiana

22. A School District Campaign:
Near South Bend, Indiana

23. Does Light Pollution
Affect Night Birds?
1st prize
regional science fair
5th grade
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24. Center of
Tucson
Observatories
Outskirts of
Tucson
Behavior of Night Sky
Brightness overTime
Using SQM stations (with
housing) for over 1 yr
every minute each night.

25. Comparison of Methods
of Night Sky Brightness
Measurements
-23
-21
-19
-17
Mag/sq arcsec other devices
vs Mag/sq arcsec of SQM #8161
17 1915 21

26. Publications
• Barentine, J.C.,Walker, C.E., Kocifaj, M., Kundracik, F, Juan, A., Kanemoto, J. and
Monrad, C.K. 2018, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and RadiativeTransfer,
“Skyglow Changes OverTucson, Arizona, Resulting from A Municipal LED Street
Lighting Conversion”, in print.
• Kyba, C.C.M. ...Walker, C.E., et al. 2015, Scientific Reports 5: 8409, “Worldwide
variations in artificial skyglow”.
• Birriel, J.J.,Walker, C.E. andThornsberry, C.R. 2014, JAAVSO, vol. 42, no. 1, 219,
“Analysis of SevenYears of Globe at Night Data”.
• Kyba, C.C.M.,Wagner, J.M., Kuechly, H.U.,Walker, C.E., Elvidge,C.D., Falchi, F.,
Ruhtz, R., Fischer, J., Hölker F. 2013, Scientific Reports 3: 1835, “Citizen Science
ProvidesValuable Data for Monitoring Global Night Sky Luminance”.
26

27. New Initiatives
• SciStarter
(Dashboard)
• Fieldscope
(Analysis)
• STARS4ALL
(LP Initiatives)
(SciStarter.com)
(FieldScope.org)
(STARS4ALL.org)

28. Summary
• Important to develop programs aimed to inspire and motivate children
and educators to enjoy and to care for the night sky as guardians of the
starry skies and its associated cultural values.
• Globe at Night (www.globeatnight.org), an international campaign to
raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution.
• People use the data to monitor levels of light pollution around the world,
as well as understand light pollution's effects on energy consumption,
plants, wildlife, human health and our ability to enjoy a starry night sky.
• Globe at Night allows us to teach our children (and the general public) to
be better stewards for tomorrow, to learn to light more responsibly and
that the solutions are simple and feasible. …Come join us.

29. Remaining Campaigns in 2018
Cygnus (North) and Sagittarius (South)
September 1-10
Pegasus (North) and Sagittarius (South)
October 1-10
Perseus (North) and Grus (South)
October 30 – November 8
November 29 -- December 8
29

30. I often think that the night is
more alive and more richly
colored than the day.
Vincent Van Gogh
Together, Let’s Save
Our Cultural Heritage!

31. Connie Walker
• Globe at Night Program Director
• 1-520-318-8535 or
• cwalker@noao.edu
Websites of interest
 Globe at Night campaign: www.globeatnight.org
 Quality Lighting Teaching Kit:
www.noao.edu/education/qltkit.php
 Dark Skies Rangers activities: www.globeatnight.org/dsr/
 The International Dark-Sky Association: www.darksky.org
Contact Information
31

32. Thank-you for
your kind attention!
Globe at Night outreach event organized by
Joan Chamberlin (a teacher from Maine)
visiting students in Nepal
Students and Advisor from Clube
Ciencias Alunos (Portugal) participate
in Globe at Night.

33. Questions?
33

34. 34

35. When did you
make your
observations?
35

36. When did you
make your
observations?
36

37. Where did you
make your
observations?
37

38. How dark is
the sky?
38

39. What are
the sky
conditions?
39

40. Did you use a
Sky Quality
Meter?
40