© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.To know the level of light pollution due to human activities, we performed sky brightness measurements at Bosscha Observatory, Indonesia (107°36E; 6°49’S, 1300 m above the sea level) during years 2011-2012 by using a portable photometer at zenith direction. From 400 records of night, we obtained that average and maximum sky brightness were 17.75±0.86 mag/arcsec sq. and 19.14±0.79 mag/arcsec sq., respectively. Cities around the Observatory, that are Bandung and Lembang, clearly give a strong contribution to light pollution. The patches of Milky Way galaxy are disappearing from the sky. Higher maximum sky brightness occurred after midnight. Brightness values before midnight were 17.83±0.83 mag/arcsec sq. on average and 18.98±0.78 mag/arcsec sq. at maximum, with average temperature of 18.8±1.3 C. The average and maximum magnitudes after midnight were 17.67±0.88 mag/arcsec sq. and 19.41±1.24 mag/arcsec sq. with average temperature of 17.1±1.6 C. Sky brightness depends on Moon age and monthly seasonal variations, but it has no relation with Earth eccentricity.

Brightness measurements,Brightness values,Earth eccentricity,Human activities,Light pollution,Maximum magnitudes,Milky way galaxy,Seasonal variation

This work was supported by ITB Research Fund (P3MI-ITB) year 2017.

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1153/1/012133