Lakeshore Environment and Night Sky Sensor (LENSS) — Student Engagement in Dark Skies Monitoring Through Nested Mentorship and Environmental Action
Abstract
Over the past five years, Yerkes Education Outreach (now Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEAM or GLAS) has been working with community groups to draw attention to the light pollution issues in the Geneva Lakes area of Wisconsin. Although a public access walking path circles Geneva Lake completely, there is a limited number of entry points, and safety is an issue for conducting sky quality monitoring. In response, GLAS launched a new project called LENSS (Lakeshore Environment and Night Sky Sensor). The long term goal of LENSS is to positively affect the quality of the dark skies around Geneva Lake and measure secondary effects on astronomy, boating safety, and wildlife. The first step in this project is to build and calibrate a sky quality meter that can be remotely operated while building a team of students, mentors, and community organizations that can handle all aspects of the project. Students working with mentors and STEAM professionals work in the areas of engineering and web design, data management, coding, and communications. This poster provides an overview of the first six months of LENSS, recruiting, sensor design and testing, and community building.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #235
- Pub Date:
- January 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AAS...23510405M