An analysis of light pollution at the Thirty Meter Telescope candidate sites

Light pollution can create difficulties for astronomers attempting to observe faint objects in the night sky. Light from a local small town can be just as intrusive as light from a large city in the distance. As the population of the Earth increases, light pollution will become more of a problem, even in remote areas. The Thirty Meter Telescope site testing program has measured light pollution at the candidate sites by using all sky cameras; an analysis procedure enhances the all sky camera images to make the determination of the effects of the light pollution. This paper summarizes the light pollution analysis procedure and current results, which are that light pollution is currently unimportant for TMT to select a site for the final telescope location.