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Rage against lights !


cotterless45

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Set up, looked up, nearly gave up. A most miserable sky from home. Just the brightest stars. Sometimes it's reasonable enough.

Got in the car and drove 4 miles out between towns. It's a forestry site, not a direct light in view.

Looking up, the Milky Way, M31, the double cluster. Through bins , the lovely M33, invisible from home. Just so peaceful, dark and secure.

Got back home to our thoroughly poor sky. Just going to make an effort to get out there . If you can do the same, then it's worth the little effort .

It's so disappointing to have some ambitions of good contrasty seeing when light pollution must spoil the pleasure of so many of us , oh, a quick grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Nick.

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I fear you are preaching to the converted Cotterless :(

Which is a shame, as if you try to raise the problem with the general public if you're lucky you get a 'meh' response & if you are unlucky they set the pcso's & cops on you

Bring back the ARP wardens making people think about what they are doing & getting them to use all these blinds & curtains that are fitted up & down the country that never get a night of use because people are too lazy & uneducated to understand what they are doing

*goes off to rant in silence to avoid getting banned*

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I fear you are preaching to the converted Cotterless :(

Which is a shame, as if you try to raise the problem with the general public if you're lucky you get a 'meh' response & if you are unlucky they set the pcso's & cops on you

Bring back the ARP wardens making people think about what they are doing & getting them to use all these blinds & curtains that are fitted up & down the country that never get a night of use because people are too lazy & uneducated to understand what they are doing

*goes off to rant in silence to avoid getting banned*

shouldnt this be in the non astro section ?

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I know you are just ranting about LP but as astronomers we are the biggest offenders. When we jump into our cars at night to drive to a dark spot, or store-theater-restaurant, what's the first thing we do? Turn on two of the brightest lights that we possess. Until we own up to that problem I'm not sure how to convince the public at large to turn off their lights.

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I know you are just ranting about LP but as astronomers we are the biggest offenders. When we jump into our cars at night to drive to a dark spot, or store-theater-restaurant, what's the first thing we do? Turn on two of the brightest lights that we possess. Until we own up to that problem I'm not sure how to convince the public at large to turn off their lights.

There is a difference between car headlights and garden security lights though don't you agree ...
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There is no point getting worked up, it comes with the idea of having a house and being in a town/village. That road outside for you to drive your car on tends to come with lights. Want the bad news - it will only get worse. :eek: :eek:

Look upon it like this the road comes with lights, it also allows an ambulance and fire brigade to get to you and you to get to friends and family when necessary and the odd shop.

I have a convenient location 3 miles away, but not really dark and a dark(ish) one that is 18 miles away. I have come to consider that observing from home as an impossible option and do not even consider it now. Makes life a lot easier.

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my husband and i are still planning the camping trip for being in a state park nearby for over night. its far enough away from the city lights but not too far to leave us stranded. I'm sure no filters are needed for dark sky sites at all on the telescope. I'm glad that now I have a pair of bins and my short tubed refractor to make travelling with them easier. there are times I get annoyed from home when the bright bright action sensing light turns on but it goes off in a few minutes. 

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A journey of 4 miles to reach an acceptable and hopefully secure vantage point for stargazing is probably a more stimulating and therefore worth while pursuit, compared to putting up with lighting distractions at home. There are so many ongoing threats to rural spaces, proposals for garden cities, new industrialization measures such as Fracking and so on.  Escaping the city lights where I live requires a considerable journey beyond 4 miles, but at least there are empty spaces to be had and once back inside the city boundary, the roads are blissfully empty. 

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The thing that gets me with light pollution is everyone complains about energy bills.

I have one 7w lamp that illuminates the room that we use in the evening, I have two energy efficient outside lights on PIR that are 15w each and don't burn your eyes out when they turn on. My electricity bill for the year is somewhat less than £250 (and I have an electric sauna) . The houses on the other side of the fields that back onto my garden all have 500w halogen lights on there back walls on PIR's in one evening they use probably enough energy to light my home for a week, its so wasteful yet the people who live there complain about bills and illuminate public open space for no other reason than it makes them feel secure. These people need to be educated at the very least.

Just to add to my rant have the councils not seen those street lights that are energy efficient, they dim and only switch onto full power when the PIR detects movement. The company I work for uses these and they save a fortune.

It really winds me up when they get onto the energy companies about the price of electricity as the average bill of 600 pound is too much, absolute rubbish these people need educating on how to live......

That's it feel better now :-)

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Global warming and rising fuel prices actually help here as there is a growing movement to eliminate wasted energy.

At home I enjoy dark skies where M31 is clear and I know it's a good night if I can see M33 naked eye. I've spent the last couple of months in the UK orange glow though so I can totally sympathise with anyone living under oranges skies.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Do not go observing in that good night

Old age should burn and rage at close of day

Rage, rage against the burning of the lights.

Though wise men at their scopes know dark is right

Because their streets have too much lighting they

Do not go observing in that good night

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their images ruined by sodium haze

Rage, rage against the burning of the lights

Wild men who caught and sang Cygnus in flight

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way

Do not go observing in that good night

With apologies to Dylan Thomas.  It's one of my favourite poems :)

James

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