Night Sky Quality Monitoring Report
Sunset Crater NM, Arizona
Lava Flow Trailhead, June 20, 2004
To effectively manage any resource, we need to know what we have and what we've lost. "Light Pollution", the brightness in the nighttime sky due to artificial light, can be seen from almost every park. The NPS has developed a system for measuring sky brightness to quantify the source and severity of light pollution. This system, developed with the assistance from professional astronomers and the International Dark-sky Association, utilizes a research-grade digital camera to capture the entire sky with a series of images. Data clearly shows that even remote national parks are not immune from stray artificial light. Sky brightness is measured in astronomical magnitudes in the V-band, abbreviated as "mags". The V-band measures mostly green light, omitting purple through ultraviolet and orange through infrared. The magnitude scale is a logarithmic scale. A difference of 5 magnitudes corresponds to a 100x difference in brightness. Lower values (smaller or more negative) are brighter. Further information on astronomical magnitudes can be found on this Sky and Telescope webpage. Data images are shown in false color, with yellow, red, and white corresponding to brighter sky and blue, purple and black corresponding to darker sky.A more detailed explanation is available.
| Category | Details | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Park | SUCR |
 Narrative: Site on southwest edge of Lava Flow Trail parking lot, on sidewalk. Horizons blocked somewhat by hills and a few trees, east blocked by Sunset Crater. Seeing good, transparency very good, very dark at zenith, lots of detail in Milky Way, two dark lanes seen northeast of Antares. Pretty good site for public or telescopes, though close to public road open all night. Light domes from Phoenix and Flagstaff merge to south-southwest, extend about 20 degress above horizon. Sky is accentuated by blackness of surrounding land (cinders).
|
| Site Name | LAVA FLOW TRAILHEAD | |
| Longitude | -111.5189 | |
| Latitude | 35.36268 | |
| Elevation (m) | 2133 | |
| Date (UT) | June 20, 2004 | |
| Time Start (UT) | 6:34:25 | |
| Data Quality | Very Good | |
| Equipment | SBIG 50mm f/2 6084 | |
| Observers | D.Duriscoe | |
| Air Temp (°F) | 61 | |
| Rel Humid (%) | 20 | |
| Wind Sp (mph) | 3 | |
| CCD Temp (°C) | -20 | |
| Exp (seconds) | 15 | |
| Bortle Class | 3 | |
| ZLM | 6.8 |
| Data Set Number | Time (UT) | Extinction Coefficient (mag/air-mass) |
Std Err Y Extinction Stars (mags) |
Zenith (mag/sq arc-sec) |
Whole Sky (mags) |
Sky Above 20° Altitude (mags) |
Brightest (mag/sq arc-sec) |
Darkest (mag/sq arc-sec) |
Links to Sky Maps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Start End |
6:34:25 6:54:55 |
0.145 |
0.056 |
21.89 21.81 |
-7.13 |
-6.57 |
19.03 |
22.03 |
PAN HEMI |
| 2-Start End |
7:08:06 7:28:44 |
0.144 |
0.053 |
21.80 21.68 |
-7.16 |
-6.61 |
19.05 |
21.98 |
PAN HEMI |
| 3-Start End |
7:41:49 8:02:23 |
0.137 |
0.048 |
21.73 21.69 |
-7.18 |
-6.63 |
19.06 |
21.98 |
PAN HEMI |
| 4-Start End |
8:15:28 8:36:04 |
0.145 |
0.055 |
21.59 21.48 |
-7.22 |
-6.68 |
19.13 |
21.86 |
PAN HEMI |
| 5-Start End |
8:49:07 9:09:35 |
0.136 |
0.048 |
21.50 21.36 |
-7.24 |
-6.71 |
19.14 |
21.86 |
PAN HEMI |
| City | Distance (km) |
Azimuth | 1st Data Set Brightness (mags) |
Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix, AZ | 208 | 194.3 | -3.85 |
 |
| Flagstaff, AZ | 21 | 205.5 | ||
| Total | -4.07 |