SkyWatch

Flagstaff measures the darkness

How bright is the night sky? How many stars can you see? Flagstaff is growing – is the night sky getting brighter?

In Flagstaff, the first International Dark-Sky City, light pollution has been dramatically reduced through effective and sustained efforts throughout the community. There is no evidence that we are using less lighting than other communities, but simply by using it more carefully and more sensibly we have made a dramatic difference. Not only is the sky darker overhead within our community, the sky glow arising from city lighting spreads much less into the surrounding environment.

Flagstaff night sky from Buffalo Park

Careful quantitative measures have been made of the sky glow viewed from the observatories outside of town, and from other distant locations. But not many measures are made within or near the city. This SkyWatch project seeks to remedy that. With volunteers and partnering organizations we are now measuring the overhead brightness of the sky from many locations in neighborhoods, parks and other locations within the city. We will be looking to see if this sky brightness is deteriorating as the city grows, or getting better as old obsolete and light polluting fixtures are replaced with better quality equipment that meets our modern world-leading standards.

The site map below shows the locations where measurements are being made on a monthly basis. Below the map are links to graphs showing the measurements. As we accumulate more measurements we will learn more about light pollution in Flagstaff and Northern Arizona, and see where we are succeeding and where more work is needed.

The SkyWatch project is made possible by support of our partners and a grant from Creative Flagstaff/Flagstaff Arts Council supported by Flagstaff BBB funds.

            

Site Map


Limiting magnitude and number of stars visible are based on the assumption of being able to see a magnitude 7.0 star in a pristine sky.

SITEGraph Sky Brightness By:
City Hall DATETIME
Mars Hill DATETIME
Coconino CD DATETIME
Amberwood DATETIME
Foxglenn DATETIME
Buffalo Park DATETIME
Bellemont DATETIME
Naval Obs. DATETIME
Anderson Mesa DATETIME
Walnut Canyon DATETIME
Sunset Crater DATETIME
Wupatki DATETIME

Partners

  NPS logo  Naval Observatory logo    

To celebrate, promote, and protect the glorious dark skies of Flagstaff and northern Arizona.