Sky Quality Meter Software
Read Your Sky Quality Meter LE, LU, LU-DL or LR electronically!
Unihedron's Sky Quality Meter allows you to determine objectively how light pollution affects the dark the sky at your observing site. Now you can get readings from the meter remotely or locally! The Sky Quality Meter delivers a dark sky reading in magnitudes per square arcsecond. The model LE (SQM-LE) delivers readings via Ethernet connection; models LU and LU-DL use a USB port and cable, and the model LR uses a 9-pin serial port and cable.
Knightware supports Sky Quality Meters with two software products:
- SQM Reader 3 is a free package that allows you to read a meter and view the dark sky result in magnitudes per square arcsecond and theoretical Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude. These values can be stored in a file in comma separated value (CSV) format.
- SQM Reader Pro 3 adds graphing, statistical calculations, extended data storage and transmission capabilities to the basic feature set of SQM Reader, allowing you to understand how light pollution affects your dark sky over time. It also supports the Skyglow Standard data file format and submission of readings to Globe at Night Monitoring Network.
Knightware would like to thank Unihedron for their kind assistance while developing SQM Reader and SQM Reader Pro.
Suggested Uses
- Personal use: Connect a Sky Quality Meter directly to your laptop in the field or to your observatory computer. Dark sky readings can be viewed immediately and stored for later analysis.
- Star Party or Club observing site use: Connect the model LE to a wireless router in the field and allow wireless connection to computers within range. Any user can receive dark sky readings from the meter wirelessly.
- Remote observatory use: Connect the model LE to a publicly addressable network. Any user can receive dark sky readings from the meter through the Internet.
- Web page: Connect any Sky Quality Meter to a computer that is also connected to the Internet. Send the latest live readings graph to your web page via FTP (SQM Reader Pro 3 only), and send the latest live readings to Knightware's SQM Readings Map page.
Sky Quality Meter Software Feature Matrix
| Feature | SQM Reader 3 | SQM Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Reads SQM-LE, LU, LU-DL and LR on-demand or automatically |  |
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| Displays reading in mag/sq arcsec (MPSAS) & naked-eye limiting magnitude (NELM) | |
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| Displays date & time of reading | |
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| Ships with multiple skins and displays properly on high resolution monitors | |
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| Stores reading to CSV file (SQM Reader native format) | |
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| Stores readings in Skyglow Standard format (see Skyglow Standard) | |
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| Opens and processes stored readings files (CSV, Skyglow and Unihedron Device Manager formats) | |
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| Supports time set, reading and erasing logged readings in SQM-LU-DL | |
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| Aligns automatic reading to the hour and multiples of the reading interval | |
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| Suspends automatic reading during twilight and/or sun up | |
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| Suspends automatic reading during moon up | |
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| Displays moon phase and altitude at time of reading | |
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| Displays MPSAS and NELM graphs of readings in real-time | |
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| Time-averages readings | |
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| Shows min, max, mean and standard deviation of readings | |
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| Stores graphs as JPEG | |
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| Stores reading as JPEG | |
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| Sends data or JPEG files to a remote FTP server | |
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| Sends data or JPEG files to a program, script or batch file | |
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| Sends data to Knightware's SQM Readings Map page | |
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| Sends data to the Globe at Night Monitoring Network | |
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| Includes online Help and examples | |