Earth Hour 2008 Report

by Rick Wagner

Earth Hour was celebrated in Ottawa from 20:00EDT to 21:00EDT on 29 March 2008, during which time everyone was to shut off their lights. I attempted to measure if this would result in any detectable reduction in light pollution. I took readings with my Unihedron Sky Quality Meter from 19:38 to 21:30EDT. From 20:03 to 21:30EDT I also imaged the field of NGC2683 which was near the zenith, using Custom Scientific RGB filters, an SBIG ST2000XM, and a 20cm/5.6 Newtonian. While the results showed no evidence of reduced light pollution, they do demonstrate the quality of calibration and measurements of the Sky Quality Meter.

Earth Hour darkness plot

Rick Wagner
Ottawa