MoonShine
To address the lack of open-source solutions for predicting, re-creating, and manipulating moonlight cycles, I developed the software-hardware system MoonShine.
MoonShine allows researchers to re-create a range of natural nocturnal lighting scenarios in the laboratory. It can re-create natural moonlight cycles with a relatively realistic spectral composition, generate manipulated moonlight schedules, or simulate light pollution.
MoonShine includes multiple features for re-creating and manipulating light cycles. It supports color shifting of the LEDs (by adjusting RGBW intensity ratios) to approximate the spectrum of natural moonlight, and to mimic habitat-specific conditions or certain types of light pollution.
Furthermore, the moonlight illuminance predicted by MoonShineR is useful for field ecologists who use moonlight as a quantitative predictor. Finally, to provide laboratory-housed animals with full diurnal light cycles, MoonShine allows researchers to re-create natural twilight and sunlight regimes.
MoonShineR
An R package that predicts ground-level moonlight illuminance (lux) at defined intervals for a specified location and time range. It can also predict sunlight and twilight. It warns the user of lunar eclipses during the prediction period.
MoonShineP
MoonShineP, a Python program running on a Raspberry Pi, uses illuminance values from MoonShineR to gradually dim and brighten a diffused array of individually addressable LEDs, allowing realistic natural light regimes to be re- created in a laboratory environment.
