An analysis of light pollution at the Thirty Meter Telescope candidate sites

Reed L. Riddle; David Walker; Matthias Schöck; Sebastian G. Els; Warren Skidmore; Tony Travouillon; Edison Bustos; Juan Seguel; Joselino Vasquez; Robert D. Blum; Paul Gillett; Brooke Gregory

doi:10.1117/12.787295

10 July 2008 An analysis of light pollution at the Thirty Meter Telescope candidate sites

Reed L. Riddle, David Walker, Matthias Schöck, Sebastian G. Els, Warren Skidmore, Tony Travouillon, Edison Bustos, Juan Seguel, Joselino Vasquez, Robert D. Blum, Paul Gillett, Brooke Gregory

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7012, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II; 701223 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.787295
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2008, Marseille, France

Abstract

Light pollution can create difficulties for astronomers attempting to observe faint objects in the night sky. Light from a local small town can be just as intrusive as light from a large city in the distance. As the population of the Earth increases, light pollution will become more of a problem, even in remote areas. The Thirty Meter Telescope site testing program has measured light pollution at the candidate sites by using all sky cameras; an analysis procedure enhances the all sky camera images to make the determination of the effects of the light pollution. This paper summarizes the light pollution analysis procedure and current results, which are that light pollution is currently unimportant for TMT to select a site for the final telescope location.

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Reed L. Riddle, David Walker, Matthias Schöck, Sebastian G. Els, Warren Skidmore, Tony Travouillon, Edison Bustos, Juan Seguel, Joselino Vasquez, Robert D. Blum, Paul Gillett, and Brooke Gregory "An analysis of light pollution at the Thirty Meter Telescope candidate sites", Proc. SPIE 7012, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes II, 701223 (10 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.787295

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