Light Pollution in Virginia Beach

Using nothing more than my cell phone and my bare two eyes, I collected my data between February 15, 2022, and March 15, 2022. For fifteen days, I surveyed three areas in Virginia Beach, spending five days in each area. These areas were the Virginia Beach Town Center, my own neighborhood, and Stumpy Lake. At around 7:00pm each night, I did the following routine:

1. Used SkyView to locate Orion in the sky.

2. Took a photograph of Orion.

3. Used LM-3000 to record the lux levels detected.

4. Used the Globe at Night webpage to record my data. 

Lux is a unit used to measure illuminance. I compared the visibility of the stars with the lux levels detected each night to see how light pollution affects astronomy in Virginia Beach. 

The average nighttime illuminance level should be less than 1 lux. Only the Stumpy Lake area had this average, with an average of 0.3 lux across the five-day period. There was no skyglow at Stumpy Lake, and every star in Orion could be clearly seen. Also, this was the only location in which SkyView could recognize that Orion was in the sky.

On the other hand, the average lux level at the Virginia Beach Town Center was 17 lux, which is very high compared to what the standard should be. With multiple sources of artificial light in this area, the stars were seemingly invisible most days.

In my neighborhood, the stars of Orion were partially visible. The average lux level detected was 5 lux. The only sources of artificial light in my neighborhood are porch lights on family homes, and a few scattered streetlights.

According to my data, a higher lux level correlates with a lower visibility of stars. This suggests that higher levels of light pollution in Virginia Beach is making it increasingly more difficult to see any stars at night.