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SQM/Digital Sky Mag Meter?


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Does anyone here have one of those Sky Quality Meter / digital sky mag meter thingies?

sqmback_med_350w.jpg

I picked up a cheapie one from SnS over the weekend, a BCF unit (I think) that never made it into production and so was being sold off at a throw away price (without any documentation), but just wondering how accurate the readings are. Anyone taking one to Kelling Heath that I could compare against?

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I've got one Steve, and would like to check its calibration too! I used it at Kelling HEath back in April and got a best reading of about 21.5 (I'll need to check the figure when I get home later). Apparently things like the Milky Way can affect the reading quite considerably so back in April when the Milky Way was wrapped around the northern horizon it wouldn't have affected it.

21.5 is a pretty dark reading (hence why I want to check it against another unit one day). I intended to use it to log readings against the visibiliyt of certain objects to give me an idea as to what would be visible under certain circumstances but haven't had enough clear nights to do so!

James

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I was going to use it to create a table of mag versus how long I could push my exposure before the "peak" starts pushing up the histogram. Is yours from Altair Astro, or imported from the states somewhere?

And the reading is "magnitude per arc-second of sky", or something vaguely similar... isnt it? I was getting 18 or so last night against LP illuminated rain clouds.

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Is yours from Altair Astro, or imported from the states somewhere?

And the reading is "magnitude per arc-second of sky", or something vaguely similar... isnt it? I was getting 18 or so last night against LP illuminated rain clouds.

I imported it from the states before I realised it was available in the UK. The reading is magnitude per square arcsecond. I get a maximum of 20.3 at home in the suburbs of Taunton (openn country to the west) with a more usual reading of about 19.5, 21 at my nearest dark sky saite and an all time best of 21.67 at a sight near Exmoor.

James

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