On the 23 of March 2020, the Italian National Research Council (CNR – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche) launched a Citizen Science initiative on light pollution for mapping light intensity in Italy. By exploiting the forced lockdown caused by COVID-19, the CNR launched a flashmob for the science named “Scienza dal balcone” (Science From the Balcony) aiming at engaging citizens in measuring the darkness of the sky from their windows in the night of 23, 24 and 25 March.
Participating is simple: just download the app (iOS or Android), turn off the light of the house and point the the phone at the main light source visible from the window and, then, upload on the campaign website the amount of illuminance (Lux) registered by the app.