All times UTC
I live in Australia, app does not show local time for events
Abweichungen zum Original SQM Meter
Die Messungen mit dem iPhone und dieser App weichen erheblich von denen mit dem Original Messgerät ab. Bei mir am Ort zeigt das Originalgerät 18.90 an und die App 19.65. Das ist min. eine ganze Blende Unterschied.
Doesn’t work in dark skies
App keeps saying “too dark for device”?
Does not work
“The night sky was to dark” so I got no result
Response from developer
I am working on a new version that will resolve this error. In the meanwhile try to cover the camera as good as possible when taking a dark.
Camera Options
Nice useful app, will use it more often to refine data. It would be good if we could choose to optionally make use of front facing camera, these are much better in recent years. Would need to blank screen while taking measurements. Perhaps take dark and light measurements automatically?
Response from developer
Good suggestions! Thanks. I however cannot force the shutter to be closed so it has to be done manually. I will stick with the back camera because they are better. A new version soon!
Useless.
Back home in the city this app rightly admonishes me for living in such a light polluted area….so I drive twelve hours to within 8 miles of Cape Wrath where it’s so dark the stars cast a shadow. Tonight it’s cloudy and the app reports it’s too dark to take a measurement. Waste of time using it.
Response from developer
The app is useful, even at dark sites you have to take approx 3 measurements to get a reliable reading because of the lack of photons which is a great sign because of a true dark site.
Options
If you are looking for an app to tell you how dark areas are- it’s is VERY dependent on others and it’s doesn’t tell you your location. It asks YOU to take a photo to send to others.
Response from developer
Hi. The app doesn’t take or send pictures at all
Too Dark reading
I’m not sure it’s working on my new iPhone. It kept giving me an error code that it was TOO DARK! It was one of the clearest dark sky nights last night and I really wanted to log it into the data.
Handy app but
One glaring issue. Not everyone uses UTC regularly. The mobile devices that the app is installed on uses local time. This app need to have the ability to do so also for where it uses time display. It is easier to just look and see local time and not have to worry about time offsets and doing the math.
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Not accurate and cannot calibrate
On an iPhone 15 pro the SQM measurement is about 2 magnitudes away from an instrument. That is over 6 x out. The calibration function referred to does not seem to exist anymore. Great idea but needs some updating
Response from developer
You can still tweak the settings in the iphone settings (dsm)
Great tool!
I noticed sky conditions at my observing locations varied and I wanted to test this, and was looking for a tool. This app performs very nicely and I see the variability quantified according to a standard scale. Also developer very friendly and helpful. I’m going to use this to map out all my observing locations. Well done.
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Easy app with minor UI oddities
This app is very easy to use.
* Cover the lens, press 1
* Wait for it to buzz
* Point at sky, press 2.
* Select cloud cover and hit Submit.
Main criticisms would be that there is no longer a list of observations (per the screenshots), and when you view an observation in the map view it only shows dates and values - it doesn’t include data like cloud cover, which would affect the measurement. I also can’t find a calibration function to add an offset where a commercial SQM is available. Maybe that’s been removed?
All in all, a decent app for “quick and dirty” measurements.
* Cover the lens, press 1
* Wait for it to buzz
* Point at sky, press 2.
* Select cloud cover and hit Submit.
Main criticisms would be that there is no longer a list of observations (per the screenshots), and when you view an observation in the map view it only shows dates and values - it doesn’t include data like cloud cover, which would affect the measurement. I also can’t find a calibration function to add an offset where a commercial SQM is available. Maybe that’s been removed?
All in all, a decent app for “quick and dirty” measurements.
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Would not buy
App does not provide any reading other than “too dark for device” when I travel to dark site locations and the app constantly freezes when trying to use the conditions feature.
Great alternative to meter
Provides consistent results for locations between 18.00 and 21.00, I don’t bother with brighter skies and haven’t been to darker skies 21.00 yet. Thank you for this app 😁
Great idea!
Having a dark sky meter on your phone is just brilliant. When I first tried this on iPhone 13, it was close to what I expected and what lightpollutionmap.info said for my dark sky site. With iPhone 14, however, I can’t seem to trust it. It either tells me my Bortle 4 sky is too dark for the device, or I get a reading that is significantly darker than reality. Perhaps a little more tweaking is needed. Other than that, the app is easy to use and doesn’t crash on me.
I wish you only had to take the dark frame once per session, but if you’re taking a lot of readings I suppose the sensor temp can climb.
I wish you only had to take the dark frame once per session, but if you’re taking a lot of readings I suppose the sensor temp can climb.
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Useless
I suppose you have to be an experienced astronomer to understand the numbers, means nothing to me without a guide, not beginner or intermediate friendly, also it says press 1 after camera is ready, no numbers on screen at all, waste of money……
Dont bother
Crashed twice right out of the gate.
Is joke, no? Worth every penny of the free price, and no more.
There are no instructions, and both the “developer website” and “support” links take you to an essentially content-less map full of dots.
The first time I ran it it responded “Invalid, try again.” No explanation.
The second time... “Too dark for device.”
YOU HAD ONE JOB.
The first time I ran it it responded “Invalid, try again.” No explanation.
The second time... “Too dark for device.”
YOU HAD ONE JOB.
Response from developer
Well, the app is not a joke. The web site is already filled with almost 40.000 measurements. Cannot be that bad and good to know that this app is free because there is no money involved. Thanks
Crashes on iPhone 13 Pro Max
Unable to send you data as I cannot find how to contact the developer other than here.
The App crashes on an iPhone 13 Pro Max when you tap on the Cloud button.
The App crashes on an iPhone 13 Pro Max when you tap on the Cloud button.
Response from developer
Thanks for reporting. You can contact me at dsm@ddq.nl . I will try to fix the issue
Not measuring correctly w iPhone 11 Pro
I used this app for years in my backyard with an iPhone 6 Plus, getting readings between 19.35 and 19.5 which seemed to agree with what was visible in the sky. Since getting an iPhone 11 Pro I get readings around 17.30. The light in my backyard did not change that much in a week. Update 12/28/21: After getting the update I was back to readings around 19.5. I received an actual SQM meter as a Christmas gift. It shows a reading of 18.44. So while the app is back to its old readings they appear to be on the optimistic side. I am deleting it at this point.
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