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Unique Night-Sky Camera System is Faster, Lighter, and More Versatile

The Fisheye Night Sky Imager is quick to set up and can measure sky brightness even under cloudy conditions.

By the editors of Park Science magazine

Circular image of the sky, including the Milky Way, from Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, colorized to clarify areas of light and dark. Most of the sky and horizon is dark, except for in the southwest and a bit of the west-northwest corners of the sky.
A processed and annotated Fisheye Night Sky Imager photo from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Image credit: NPS

Over 80 percent of the world’s people live with nighttime light pollution, which can harm human, animal, and ecosystem health. Citizen scientists tell us light pollution is increasing by 7–10 percent per year. Many U.S. national parks are some of the last remaining places on Earth with truly dark night skies. And visitors flock to them to get a rare glimpse of our Milky Way Galaxy and other celestial superstars. For these reasons, the National Park Service keeps close tabs on night sky brightness in national parks.

Since the 2000s, the agency has collected night-sky data using wide-field charge-coupled device (CCD) camera systems. But these CCD systems have constraints, like limiting observers to taking pictures only on clear, moonless nights. Recently, scientists developed a new camera system to measure night sky light pollution. They reported their results in the August 2024 issue of Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The new camera system overcomes several limitations of CCD systems.

The Fisheye Night Sky Imager, as they call this new system, can take a picture of the entire night sky in just 30 seconds. The researchers say the new system is lightweight, portable, quick to set up, and can measure sky brightness even in less-than-stellar conditions. Bonus: it comes with customized, first-of-its-kind, completely-free, open-source software to process the images.

Hung and others. 2024. Fisheye Night Sky Imager: A Calibrated Tool to Measure Night Sky Brightness. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 136: 085002.

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Last updated: January 20, 2025