32nd Annual Student Research Conference
Light Pollution in Kirksville, MO
Jordan N. Goins*, Emily C. Wren, and Ashley K. Herdman
Dr. Vayujeet Gokhale and Dr. David Caples (Moberly Area Community College), Faculty Mentors
In this presentation we describe the current light pollution level in and around Kirksville, Missouri. We quantify the amount of light that is projected up towards the sky, instead of the ground, by using Unihedron Sky Quality Meters (SQMs) installed at various locations. In addition, we present data from the newly installed weather station and cloud sensor at the Truman Observatory, and compare these data to the concurrently measured sky brightness from the SQM sensors. We also use an ‘all-sky camera’ to take pictures of the night sky to visually confirm sky-conditions. We correlate cloud coverage, humidity, and temperature to the sky brightness levels measure by the SQMs. Finally, we describe the outreach and awareness efforts being undertaken at Truman State to mitigate the nuisance of light pollution, including the implementation of warmer colored lights and dark sky reflectors.
Keywords: Light pollution, Astronomy, Environment, Outreach
Topic(s):Astronomy
Environmental Studies
Physics
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 210-1
Location: MC 211
Time: 10:15