Night sky brightness measurement, quality assessment and monitoring

Ground-based optical astronomy necessarily involves sensing the light of astronomical objects along with contributions many natural sources ranging from Earth’s atmosphere to cosmological light. In addition, astronomers have long contended artificial pollution, which further adds ‘background’ against are seen. Understanding brightness night sky is therefore fundamental astronomy. The last comprehensive review this subject was nearly a half-century ago, and we learned much about both since. This Review considers influences determine total sky, means by measured how quality assessed monitored in term. Light pollution growing problem affecting sky. takes look at factors contributing elevated night, measurement techniques ongoing assessment quality.