SKY BRIGHTNESS
Display scale: 0–23 mag/arcsec², not instrument limits or a sky-quality rating. Values outside it remain visible.
Not available
Awaiting verified measurement
Valid readings use magnitudes per square arcsecond (mag/arcsec²).
FIELD NOTES / Sky Light Meter
How dark is
our night sky?
Real light-meter readings. A clearer view of change.
No camera. Honest coverage, without invented history.
Checking the authenticated light-meter feed…
DEVICE TEMPERATURE
Not available
Inside the light meter — not outdoor air temperature.
COLLECTION FRESHNESS
No samples
Expected collection interval: 30 seconds; stale after 150 seconds. Freshness independently checks collection, generation and last successful response times. Validity is separate.
Connection status: unknown
MOON CONTEXT
Calculating…
Illumination pending
Altitude pending
Horizon pending
COVERAGE
Building history
The existing logger keeps collecting genuine samples. A week of nights is a useful start; a lunar month is stronger for comparisons.
Moon data here are calculated astronomy, not a second light sensor.
HOW TO READ THIS
Measured sky brightness can get brighter (lower mag/arcsec²) when moonlight is present, but clouds and nearby lights can do the same. Moon above the horizon does not prove an unobstructed Moon. No cause is claimed from these charts alone.
REAL POINTS ONLY
The sky, one reading at a time.
These charts use genuine received history. Missing, saturated or unsupported intervals remain gaps. No interpolation, simulated curves or filled-in nights.
Overnight sky brightness
Valid mag/arcsec² observations only. Larger numbers mean a darker measured sky; smaller numbers mean a brighter measured sky. No night/day classification is inferred here.
Waiting for genuine nighttime coverage. When the light level exceeds the meter’s useful sky-darkness range, brightness stays unavailable. That does not establish sunny or cloudy weather.
Overnight comparison: measured sky & Moon geometry
Top: genuine sky-meter mag/arcsec² (higher = darker measured sky). Bottom: calculated Moon altitude and illuminated fraction at the same observation times. Gaps in measured brightness stay gaps. This is not a plot of measured moonlight and not a weather/cloud claim.
Waiting for genuine samples. Daylight/twilight/night bands come from calculated solar altitude at the public city reference.
Inside the meter
Instrument temperature in °F. Useful context for the device, not a weather or ambient-temperature reading.
Actual saved internal-temperature observations only. Lines break at missing records or intervals longer than the expected 30-second cadence.
START HERE
Read the light, not just the number.
What is being measured?
The Sky Light Meter is a light meter, not a camera. It reports sky brightness in magnitudes per square arcsecond. Compare valid observations with their times and coverage, not an imagined image of the sky.
Why does it say “too bright”?
A raw value of 0.00 marked saturation means the meter cannot provide a valid sky-darkness reading at that light level. That is not zero light, a perfectly dark sky, or a valid night-sky brightness measurement. The raw record is preserved; the displayed brightness stays unavailable.
What does “recent” tell me?
Only how recently the logger collected a sample. A recent sample can still be saturated or missing. An old upload cannot establish that the instrument is offline. The feed uses a 150-second stale limit. Collection, export generation, last successful response and website receipt must all remain within it. A live connection does not make a saturated measurement valid.
What about moonlight?
Moonlight can make the measured sky less dark, but so can clouds and local lighting. This page adds calculated Moon phase, illumination and altitude at each genuine sample time, using an approximate Melbourne / central Brevard public reference — not the exact meter location. The comparison chart keeps measured brightness and Moon geometry on separate panels/units. It does not invent a moonlight lux reading or claim that the Moon caused a change.
What can change a reading?
Lighting, clouds, moonlight, viewing direction and instrument placement can affect sky brightness. These readings alone do not assign a Bortle class, identify a cause, measure a camera scene or predict observing conditions.
Where are the missing nights?
Only the saved coverage shown here is available. Charts break at invalid samples and gaps longer than the expected 30-second cadence. The brightness chart must not be called a complete overnight record until its actual coverage is established.
The Space Coast Wire / Station Lab · Sky Light Meter
Source: authenticated, database-backed light-meter uploads. History starts after the final outdoor installation at 3:30 PM EST. No precise location, serial number or private network details are published.
Our own station readings. The collector and local database are maintained separately by Tech Bot. This preview installs no collector, database, live transport or scheduled update.