Sky quality monitor
Measure sky brightness in MPSAS
Standalone. Wi-Fi. No PC or app needed. Point it at the sky, take a measurement — or leave it overnight and retrieve a full night's data from any device in the morning.
Unit
MPSAS
Magnitudes per square arcsecond — the standard for sky quality
Field of view
18°
Calibrated sensor with defined angular coverage
Battery life
24 h
USB rechargeable — a full night of continuous recording on one charge
Dimensions
135 mm
Compact torch form factor · ~120 g · –10 to 45 °C operating range
No separate datalogger, no dedicated software, no extra hardware. Lanternfish does it all independently.
Lanternfish creates its own Wi-Fi network. Connect any phone, tablet or laptop directly — no router, no infrastructure. Or configure it to join your existing network.
Records every measurement with date and time automatically. Night-by-night history with Max, Min and Average MPSAS — plus temperature — available for each session.
Plot any night as an interactive MPSAS graph overlaid with temperature. Export graphs as PNG directly from the interface. Beautiful, data-rich, and instantly readable.
Export any night's readings as a CSV file for analysis in your preferred tool — spreadsheets, Python, R. Full dataset including timestamp, MPSAS and temperature columns.
Update Lanternfish firmware over the air directly from the web interface — no cables, no flashing tools needed.
Access live readings and history via JSON — integrate Lanternfish data into your observatory automation software, dashboards or custom scripts.
Lanternfish plots MPSAS and temperature for the whole night on a single graph — with the Lanternfish artwork in the background. Export as PNG directly from the interface.
Use Lanternfish for a single instant measurement or run it autonomously all night — with configurable stop triggers so it powers down when you want it to.
Point Lanternfish at the sky and get an immediate MPSAS reading via the OLED display or web interface. Configurable active time before the device powers down again.
Set an interval and let Lanternfish record all night autonomously. Stop triggers give you full control over when recording ends — without needing to retrieve the device.
The Lanternfish web interface runs directly on the device — open it in any browser. No app to install, no account to create, no cloud dependency.
Night mode overview — readings graph with the full night plotted, history of previous sessions, and the live Control Panel showing the last MPSAS reading and battery level.
Readings History and live Control Panel — night-by-night summary with Max / Min / Avg MPSAS and temperature. The control panel shows the current reading and battery level at a glance.
Settings panel — Wi-Fi network configuration, temperature unit, firmware version and OTA update. Device information including IP address, serial number and internal time.
| Measurement unit | MPSAS |
| Sensor type | Calibrated light sensor with spectral response |
| Field of view | 18° |
| Display | OLED |
| Battery | USB rechargeable — up to 24 h |
| Data storage | Internal — historical records by night |
| Wi-Fi | Standalone access point + station mode |
| Interface | Integrated web interface — any browser |
| Data export | CSV, PNG graph export, JSON API |
| Firmware updates | OTA via web interface |
| Dimensions | ~135 × 28 × 28 mm |
| Weight | ~120 g |
| Operating temperature | −10 °C to 45 °C |
Connect to Lanternfish's Wi-Fi and open 192.168.4.1 in any browser — or configure station mode to join your own network and assign a fixed IP or hostname.
The JSON API makes it straightforward to pull live readings into automation scripts or dashboards:
GET /api/reading GET /api/history GET /api/statusFull API documentation is included in the user manual.
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