Development of a sky quality imager app for field site measurement of night sky brightness

Abstract

Professional and amateur astronomer and astronomy enthusiasts who live in urban areas often struggle to find a good location with a clear night sky view and have to rely on expensive gadgets and devices to measure the brightness of the night sky. The Sky Quality Meter (SQM) is one of the commonly used devices but it’s high price is not justifiable for most individuals. This project will be focused on developing a mobile application that is a low cost alternate to the SQM. With the growing popularity of the smartphone industry and the public’s familiarity with mobile applications, this project aims to provide an easy and accessible way to measure the brightness of the night sky. The user will be able to take the picture of the night sky and know the brightness in the same unit of measurement as the SQM which is the magnitude per square arcsecond. The outcome of this project will greatly help the amateur astronomy enthusiasts as well as the professional society and whoever is interested in gazing at the glimmering lights of the distant past.