Map of Sky Brightness over Greater Bandung and the Prospect of Astro-Tourism.

In this paper, results of moving campaigns of night sky brightness measurement over Greater Bandung area are reported as a part of the first step to mitigate the level of light pollution in the area and its multidimensional impact. Though the campaigns were not commenced in ideal condition in terms of cloud cover and moon light contamination, some statistical treatment and moonlight correction were performed to improve the quality of the data. The obtained value of sky brightness range from ~17 mpsas at downtown region to ~20 mpsas at Haurgombong, Sumedang which is more than 30 km away from the city center. It is in agreement with monthslength stationary measurements of sky brightness over Bandung, Lembang, and Sumedang. R-square (R^2) between this in-situ measurement and the average nighttime radiance map from Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (VIIRS-DNB) was found such that empirical relation between the two variables can be utilized to create the map of sky brightness over Greater Bandung area. From this map, it was found that majority (~90%) of the existing tourism destinations, hotels, and resorts in the region belong to the third class of astro-tourism site where only bright celestial objects are observable. Better locations (class 2) can be found in Ciwidey, Cikole-Ciater, and Padalarang regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]