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LENSS

Lakeshore Environment and Night Sky Sensor

The ultimate goal of LENSS is to build and deploy a remotely-operable Sky Quality Meter that can take continuous measurements of how dark the skies are around Geneva Lake for the purpose of improving community engagement in the important health and safety issues associate with light pollution.

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Active Sensors

WHAT IS LENSS?

The Lakeshore Environoment and Night Sky Sensor project was launched in May 2019 as one of the tech projects offered by GLAS Education for high school students interested in doing something positive for our community while learning first-hand about careers in STEM.  Working with professionals in engineering, project management, coding, and design, students designed, constructed, and tested a remotely-operable sky quality meter.  Quality skies are dark skies and they benefit wildlife, human health, boating safety,  and our ability to see and study the universe from Walworth County.

Six people, two men and four women, stranding in a sunny clearing. A young man with glasses is holding the upper section of a pole that pivots downward to give access to a light detector.
GLAS staffer Adam McCulloch, left, shows interns how to collect data from a LENNS light monitor which is mounted on a pole in the Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy,.
GLAS students, from left, Maire Lucero, Syd Kraus and Liam Finley help GLAS staffer Adam McCulloch install a LENSS light meter at a lakeside house with the owners' permission.
LENSS – The special kind of Sky Quality Meter

See some of our LENSS results!

Our sensors are continuously taking data. With Python, we’ve been able to plot the light frequency on a nightly basis. With this data, we hope to see a change in light pollution on a yearly basis. 

What can you do to help?

Night time photo of old-fashioned street lamp in lakeside park.
Keeping the sky dark in Walworth county for everyone to enjoy.

The first long-term field testing of a LENSS Project meter is starting now.  Two sensors will be placed at homes on the Geneva Lake shoreline on Noveber 10, 2020  The units will be monitored closely and modification to our design will be made during the winter.  Our goal is to have ten additional sensors ready to be placed by May 1, 2021 at regular intervals around the lake with an additional 10 ready for the fall.  If you are interested in hosting  LENSS on your property and are able to provide a source of power and WiFi access, then please contact GLAS.

LENSS is generously supported by:

Environmental Education Foundation

Geneva Lake Association

Horizontal graphic for lake association.

Walworth/Fontana Rotary

Horizontal graphic for Rotary.
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