Loss of the night
The Loss of the Night app turns your eyes into a light meter, allowing you to become a citizen scientist and report how bright the night sky is where you live!
In many parts of the world, the night sky shines with wasted artificial light from poorly designed street lamps. Skyglow outshines the stars in the skies, and dramatically changes the natural nighttime environment. Scientists are concerned that light pollution might have a big impact on nocturnal ecosystems, but they have very little information about how bright the actually sky is worldwide, or how skyglow is changing over the years.
You can help monitor skyglow using this app! It's based on Google's Sky Map, and lets you make measurements with a very sensitive, stable, and well understood light meter: your eyes! All you need to do is look for certain stars in the sky, and tell us whether you can see them or not. Using the Loss of the Night app is both fun and educational, and it also generates important scientific information that might help to protect the environment in the future.
After you've finished your measurement, your data will be anonymously sent to the GLOBE at Night project. You can see it on a map, check how accurate your measurment was, track changes over time, and compare it to other observations from around the world at http://www.myskyatnight.com.
Counting stars is a great experience and family activity, and you might find that you learn the names of stars and constellations without even trying. Students can use the app to measure skyglow and star visibility for their own science projects, and at the same time be part of a global citizen science network. The most important information for this project comes from brightly lit places where you can't see many stars, but you're welcome to use it in places where you can still see the Milky Way. If you’re lucky enough to be in such a place, let others know!
Satellites look at the ground, not the sky. By comparing the skyglow to the ground brightness, you will help communities learn what types of lamps light the streets instead of the sky. Hopefully in the future, cities will save energy and money, while having appropriately lit streets, dark bedrooms, and a sky once again full of stars.
Lots more information, including details of preliminary results, is available on the project blog: http://lossofthenight.blogspot.com
You are welcome to get into contact with the light pollution researchers from Verlust der Nacht that built this app, and learn about their other projects (http://www.verlustdernacht.de). The app also provides some basic information on the history, importance, and consequences of artificial light at night.
This project was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany).
Category : Education
Reviews (26)
Edit : The App is finally working again on new devices , in time for the International dark sky week, really love the concept of the App
I really like the purpose of this app, and since I live in a large city, I hoped to be able to contribute data. However, the app just restarts whenever I try to make an observation. I'd still be happy to give it another try if it ever gets fixed.
The app is not working. When I click Start Observing Stars. I restarts and repeats the same. Please fix it. I am using this app to encourage students to participate in citizen science project.
it's phone friendly, accurate, and extremely helpful to the creators for Loss of the night. I'm so glad I installed this a long time ago. it's night mode makes it very easy to use without having to let your eyes readjust every time you need to find another star. thanks!! glad I could help in the name of science and astronomy!
Edit: yes, the app works on Android 11 now, and has for some time. I forgot to edit the review 😬
I would love it if this app worked. Went outside at 21:45 and got a message saying it was not dark enough, despite solid cloud cover. The weird thing was the message said the next available time to try is 16 days from now?!
I just installed the app and it also crashes whefb I choose the opt-in to "Start observing stars"
This app is so easy to use and educational. It also enables the average person to collect real data to help scientists curb light pollution!! Highly recommend!
Great idea, but app is defective in Northern CA, USA. Feedback selection directs to send an email, but gives no recipient address.
Great app! I'm fortunate where I live to have relatively low light pollution, so many stars about magnitude -5 are visible to my eyes. Helps that I also an an amateur astronomer.
This is a fantastic app and very fun to use.
I have enjoyed using on my LG phone. Recently I noticed that my observations have not been uploading. But I am glad this app exists!
Great app!! I hope we can all do more to preserve the night sky
Please add the functionality to export or share the My Measurements history data. thanks
Great app. I have a question though. My measurements transmission status is waiting for a week. Is this an issue?
Really fun and it helps science too.
I love what you're trying to accomplish and I am thrilled to be a part of it!
You *MUST* explain WHY you need some sensitive permissions in terms of your app functional requirements. The description in the privacy terms is the generic and uninformative Google's generic blablabla description which only says *WHAT* subsystems are affected by those permissions but not *HOW* they are affected and what are the actual implications. Why do you need my phone information when you would not need that from my phone-less tablet? How is my connection to the internet used? What connections are established? what security risks entails granting all this permissions? (a detailed explanation is a must).
Fun and exciting but had some issues with misalignment of app to sky making observations uncertain.
I like the idea this app, but i have a problem with gps determining my position even im outdoor with open space, it can't determining. When i open my gps, my gps works. I hope you guys fix it.
this app will not operate with newer versions of Android. I'm currently running Oreo
interesting app
Does NOT work well for entering SQM data on my Samsung S5 Active phone. It attempts to get a GPS fix with me standing outside, reports receiving 18 satellites, but never leaves the GPS fix dialog after 30 minutes. Cancel app and restart produces the same result.
I had difficulties at first. Between long waits for the satellites to locate my phone, to cloudy nights and even a full moon, there was something in the way. But one night it worked! I was glad I returned and attempted it again. And I think the data is very important. I wish more people would be aware of what we are looking because of all types of pollution. Water, light, plastic, carbon...
Great except for one thing.Please fix the auto-brightness being disabled when using the app.
After successfully using this app for a few years, unfortunately I have to echo the authors of the last few reviews and confirm that a recent update made the app unusable. It would be great if the developers could fix it, it's a very cool app and to my knowledge there are no Android alternatives to its capabilities. Edit: The developers released a new version, and it seems to work again now. I will try it as soon as the sky is clear. Thanks and congrats for the great app!