Abstract
To determine the level of light pollution due to human activities, we performed sky-brightness measurements at Bosscha Observatory, Indonesia (107°36′E; 6°49′S, 1300 m above sea level) for seven years from 2011 to 2018, using a portable photometer pointed at the zenith. From 1692 nightly records, we found that the average brightness on moonless nights reached the 19.70 ± 0.84 and 19.01 ± 0.88 astronomical magnitudes per square arcsecond (mpass), with median values of 19.73 mpass and 19.03 mpass for the AM and PM periods, respectively. The darkest skies occurred in the peak of the summer season during the month of July, which corresponds to the lowest annual temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity. The internal temperature of our Sky Quality Meter is adequately stable, and our results correlate well with other measurements. The sky brightness depends on the age of the Moon (days past new Moon) and on seasonal monthly variations, but it is not related to the lunar distance. The night-SB quality can be modified by the coupled climate system as a diurnal cycle to an 11-year solar cycle. The cities around the Observatory, Bandung and Lembang, clearly make strong contributions to light pollution in the area due to unshielded light sources.
Highlights
Bosscha Observatory (107360E; 6490S, 1300 m above sea level, IAU observatory code 299), which has the first modern telescopes in Indonesia, is located in the city of Lembang, West Java. It is on the north side of the ancient plateau of Bandung Basin, a high-density populated area, and in the southern part of the Tangkuban Perahu volcano
The Observatory was named after Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha from the Netherlands, who mostly funded and built it from 1923 to 1928 (Voute, 1933)
The geomorphology of the Bandung Basin plays an important role in the diurnal cycle of near-surface climate parameters (Geiger et al, 2003)
Summary
Bosscha Observatory (107360E; 6490S, 1300 m above sea level, IAU observatory code 299), which has the first modern telescopes in Indonesia, is located in the city of Lembang, West Java. It is on the north side of the ancient plateau of Bandung Basin, a high-density populated area, and in the southern part of the Tangkuban Perahu volcano. Outdoor lighting from an unshielded light fixture causes a man-made sky glow. All these factors have become an integrated part of environmental management (Scherer et al, 1999; Suder and Szymanowski, 2014).
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