Unihedron SQM-LU-DL-V Sky Quality Meter with USB and Data Logging

Unihedron SQM-LU-DL-V Sky Quality Meter with USB and Data Logging

£339.00✓ 2 year warranty

Product description
In the box
FAQ

:	Out of stock due 10-15 working days

Notify me when back in stock

Ask a Question Ask a Wishlist

Add To Wishlist

Send To Friend

Frequently bought with this product:

Unihedron SQM-LX 1.25" Filter Adapter

+ £25.00

About this product

Model: unihedron-sqm-lu-dl-v
Part Number: SQM-LU-DL-V

A USB enabled vector data-logging light meter for night-time sky brightness monitoring!

An affordable meter for continual, connected or autonomous data-logging to measure sky brightness for astronomers and light pollution investigators.

The "Sky Quality Meter - LU-DL-V" (SQM-LU-DL-V) measures the brightness of the night sky in magnitudes per square arcsecond.

Designed by Dr. Doug Welch and Anthony Tekatch

Uses

Measuring the night sky brightness during remote biological field experiments.
Find out how good the night or site REALLY is.
Compare the sky brightness at different sites quantitatively.
Document the evolution of light pollution in your area.
Set planetarium dome illumination to mimic the skies people are likely to experience elsewhere in the city.
Monitor sky brightness through the night, night-to-night, and year-to-year.
Determine which nights show the greatest promise for finding the 'faintest fuzzies'!
Calibrate the effect of sky brightness on qualitative measures such as the Bortle Scale.
Investigate how sky brightness correlates with the solar cycle and month-to-month sunspot activity.
Help provide local ground truth for future sky brightness prediction with the Clear Sky Clock.
CCD users can make a correlation between the SQM reading and when the background reaches some ADC level.

Features

Sky brightness reported in visual magnitudes per square arcsecond.
Infrared blocking filter restricts measurement to visual bandpass.
Sensor temperature, model number, and serial number are provided.
Precision readings at even the darkest sites.
Field-upgradeable firmware.
All the features of our SQM-LU (USB model) plus Data logging capabilities and vector measurements.
Open protocol and product manual..

Specifications

USB connectivity
Data-logging capabilities while operated from external battery.
Vector measurements of Altitude and Azimuth (built-in accelerometer/compass module).
Included applications for reading data in Perl.
The Half Width Half Maximum (HWHM) of the angular sensitivity is ~10°. The Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) is then ~20°. The sensitivity to a point source ~19° off-axis is a factor of 10 lower than on-axis. A point source ~20° and ~40° off-axis would register 3.0 and 5.0 magnitudes fainter, respectively.
Size 5.5 x 2.6 x 1.1 in.
Maximum light sampling time: 80 seconds.
Minimum light sampling time: 1 seconds.
Specifications are subject to change without notice.

Notes

The compass readings are very sensitive to any nearby hard and soft iron. The unit works well by hand operation.

There is a slight magnetic offset (pinched and stretched at ≈±5° in some directions) due to internal components which have yet to be compensated for in the UDM software, but the compensation is planned for a future release of UDM.

What's in the box

SQM-LU-DL-V Unit
USB Flash drive including a manual, operation software (UDM) and example software.
15ft USB Cable
Battery-to-USB Adapter & Battery Holder
Calibration Sheet - Indicated unit USB serial number and calibration values