fairfolio
Saved Projects

Finding the Darkest Sky in an Urban Environment – Integrating the Novel Variable of Vegetation Cover To Improve the Star-Gazing Experience

ISEF · 2026 Physics and Astronomy

Rajaratnam, Anton · Redeemer Baptist School

Is this your project?

Overview

Light pollution is a growing societal issue with at least 80% of the world's population encountering reduced night sky visibility due to urban skyglow. As well as scattered light emanating from incandescent lamps and more recently gas-discharge and LED lamps, topographical and climatic factors such as elevation, humidity and aerosol concentration can affect the observations of stars. However, one topographical factor that doesn't feature in light pollution reports or research studies is vegetation coverage - a factor the author hypothesised to be a significant factor for finding the darkest sky in an urban environment. This investigation involved a sampling regime of multiple transects with incremental measurements (5-10 km apart) of apparent magnitude and SQM readings. Climatic data for 31 locations were recorded, and a regression analysis was performed against SQM readings with weak correlations. A strong correlation (R 2 = 0.86) was obtained when light proximity to urban locations, using ImageJ software and satellite imagery, was plotted against SQM readings. A novel vegetation index, combining ground coverage density and vertical stratification for each location was integrated with light proximity, yielding a stronger correlation (R 2 = 0.91), demonstrating that thick vegetation in an urban environment can contribute to a measurably darker night sky by reducing the albedo in the ground layer. This finding of vegetation's combative effect to light pollution has global significance for improving the experience of star gazing in urban environments.

Working on something like this? See what's been done and what's still open.

Competition history

  • ISEF 2026 Physics and Astronomy · Entry PHYS005 Affiliated fair in NSW, Australia

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Report a problem

Source: Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google