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Welcome to Darkness 4 All, a blog about my research in light pollution... Andy

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A super dark spot in Latvia

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This time I follow a recommendation by Oliver Lindecke a PhD student from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. He is working (among other stuff) on effects of artificial light on bats ( recent paper here ). Oli studies bats in Pape Village in Latvia and he told me that the bat research station is in a very dark spot. Checking the world atlas data shows that indeed across the Courland peninsula many sites are almost free of light pollution . So I pack an SQM, the camera with fisheye and fly to Riga. The plan is to go around the peninsula in the first night, do some measurements at the Northern tip, record night sky brightness wit an SQM roadrunner system along the travel and meet up with the bat researchers in the morning. Its a long drive from Riga and I arrive at Kolka Village at the northern tip just after sunset. Due to some technical problems I have to improvise and run the SQM and GPS with separate programs. But it finally works and the ...
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UFO in Kilpisjärvi part 2 - light pillars and ice road runner

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It was fun being in the snowy desert during day - but our misssion is to measure light at night. After dinner Franz and I hit the road...we earn confused looks from our lake physics friends..."You want to get out now? Not go to sauna after this busy and cold day?" - Aaargh thanks for the reminder ;) When outside, we are amazed by the view above Kilpisjärvi village. The ice fog creates "light pillars" a phenomenon where flat ice crystals float in the lower atmosphere and create some sort of giant mirror reflecting only the light emitted directly upwards towards your observation point (see wikipedia here and nicer pictures on twitter ). These pillars look bizarrely and the most spectacular thing is that every car approaching us is creating the same moving "light pillar"....pretty stunning. During our hunt for darkness we measure night sky brightness values down to 21.5-21.6 mags (so near natural). Every now and then ice-fog or clouds appear and ...
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Last day in Kilpisjärvi

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The Kilpisjärvi biological station in winter is a nice place for a stay. It is not busy at all, but still you meet some other researchers to discuss new ideas. It is well equipped (with stuff like sleighs, snow shoes and ski) and has an own cantine that serves breakfast and dinner. We had nice food here including the very local reindeer meat dish. The station at foot of mount Saana Stuff arctic researchers need The station is famous for the research on lemmings. They are part of the logo, you can read an article in the hallway and look at (touch?) some lemming fur. Logo of the biological station Lemmings on Nature cover Lemmings on poster On the last day in Kilpisjärvi we don't have to drill holes anymore. We can inspect data, take down our installed measurement devices and start to pack. We watch our lake physicist friends unpack their ROV ( remotely operated underwater vehicle ) a nice device that is built to skate (!) just under the ice taking measu...
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