Back at CES 2023, French smart telescope maker Unistellar launched a new model that could digitally remove light pollution from cities to give users a clear view of the stars. Now the company has improved on the formula with its new Deep Dark Technology.
A study from the German Research Center for Geoscience in 2017 declared that artificial light pollution around the globe was increasing by around 2% per year. The same institution recently confirmed that so-called skyglow is now increasing at an annual rate of between 7 and 10%, based on data gathered from 11 years of citizen science.
If you're an avid stargazer or amateur astronomer then that essentially means you need to head farther out into the wilderness to escape from the glow of population centers.
Unistellar's Smart Light Pollution Reduction image processing technology that launched in the eQuinox 2 smart telescope allowed amateur astronomers to step out onto their apartment balcony and rely on smart image processing to break through the noise.
Now the Nikon-backed company says it has developed new proprietary algorithms based on numerous images captured by its community of sky watchers, and trained them to differentiate between light coming from stars and planets and that being given off a little closer to home. The technology can then map local noise and light pollution in each image made through its telescopes and automatically filter out the interference in real-time.
"As more and more people choose to live in urban areas, it is more important than ever for Unistellar to give city dwellers the opportunity to enjoy exploring and learning about the universe," said company CEO and co-founder, Laurent Marfisi. "Thanks to the radical innovation of our Deep Dark Technology, Unistellar telescopes cut through the haze of light pollution that has kept us from exploring the stars from our place in the city."
The new development has already been installed on new smart telescopes sold by the company, and is available as a free app update for existing users.
Source: Unistellar