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Let There Be Light - not anymore :)

Brighton Belle

By Brighton Belle
in The Astro Lounge

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Brighton Belle

Brighton Belle

Posted
Posted

I had a hissy fit last night because council are changing the yellow street light bulbs for white ones and I have just bought an LP filter for yellow light....

BUT

Tonight I find out street lights in the whole town are being turned off between 0000 and 0600.

This means I will never get a proper nights sleep again, but hay ho, small price to pay :grin:

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ArmyAirForce

ArmyAirForce

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From my front garden, I can see 18 orange street lights in the surrounding area. From the back garden where I observe, there are 5 orange street lights in view, but I do have a 6'6" garden fence which helps shield the direct glare. Overall, the sky here is pretty poor, with the general glow from Washington and a near by industrial estate, and B&Q with their huge floodlit car park. I would pass out from excitement if I heard the council was going to start turning off the lights after midnight.

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jnb

jnb

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Our local councils around here have started turning lights off between 0030 and 0530 but only on some roads. So lights are turned off on residential non through roads, dimmed on residential through roads and left on on main roads. I can't say I've noticed that it's had a great impact which makes me wonder how much of the problem is not civic but private lighting.

Personally I'd turn off all street lights at all times.

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jnb

jnb

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That's amazing! May I ask where this is happening?

Sussex.

I'm not sure where the original poster is exactly but the larger rural towns are introducing a policy of reduced lighting ovenight. It's not quite as good as it seems as the roads with most lighting are still left lit overnight and it doesn't cover the major towns only the rural towns and unless the original poster is in a different area to me then its only 0030 - 0530. That said it is I suppose a small step in the right direction.

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jnb

jnb

Posted
Posted

Sussex.

I'm not sure where the original poster is exactly but the larger rural towns are introducing a policy of reduced lighting ovenight. It's not quite as good as it seems as the roads with most lighting are still left lit overnight and it doesn't cover the major towns only the rural towns and unless the original poster is in a different area to me then its only 0030 - 0530. That said it is I suppose a small step in the right direction.

and to follow up my own post again (I'm sure someone said there was an edit function somewhere here)

http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/4971D468-BC9A-47B2-9D22-85FE3134EC94/0/01_crowb_st_johns.pdf

Is an example. It's only the roads marked in pink that turn off lights and only between 0030 and 0530

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SteveNickolls

SteveNickolls

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Our local councils around here have started turning lights off between 0030 and 0530 but only on some roads. So lights are turned off on residential non through roads, dimmed on residential through roads and left on on main roads. I can't say I've noticed that it's had a great impact which makes me wonder how much of the problem is not civic but private lighting.

Personally I'd turn off all street lights at all times.

That's excellent news Brighton Belle.

jnb- have you tried estimating the limiting sky for your area before the turn off at night and just afterwards or don't you find any real difference with all the local house lights still being on? The Notts lighting dimming/turn off programme has been delayed so I won't see the street lights turned off here now (or any hoped for darker skies) until May 2014. If you haven't found any real difference I won't build up my hopes of better skies here. The current limiting magnitude here is only 4.3 :sad:

Cheers,

Steve

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jnb

jnb

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jnb- have you tried estimating the limiting sky for your area before the turn off at night and just afterwards or don't you find any real difference with all the local house lights still being on? The Notts lighting dimming/turn off programme has been delayed so I won't see the street lights turned off here now (or any hoped for darker skies) until May 2014. If you haven't found any real difference I won't build up my hopes of better skies here. The current limiting magnitude here is only 4.3 :sad:

Well it's very subjective but I'm about four miles out of any town so most of the obvious light pollution is sky glow on the horizon and that seems to be more dependant on the weather then whether it's before or after 0030. I suspect if it was a clear night and I could do some objective measurements then I would see a difference, also I suspect if I was nearer to the offending lights I would see a difference but subjectively from here I don't. What I would like to do is be out and watching the skyglow / light pollution at the moment they switch off to give myself a better idea of the real impact (and to persuade myself that it really does make a difference).

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The Sailor

The Sailor

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I had been out a number of times when the lights went out but did make any difference to me as the light opposite the observatory stayed on, but I have to admit that the there was a real difference on the night the lamp was shaded. I knew there was something different but could not put my finger on it and it was only when I wandered outside I realised they had shaded the light, it was a great, even then I could not discern any difference come midnight, Cinderella was not taking all her lights to the ball :).

Jim

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SteveNickolls

SteveNickolls

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Thanks jnb. I have been testing what limiting magnitude I currently get here using the stars in Ursa Minor and it has worked quite well. The values I have been getting compare with the dark sky overlay I have for Google Earth. I was intending to repeat the exercise both before and after switch off on a number of nights when our street lights were dimmed/turned off but the local scheme has been put back from this month to May 2014 so I have quite a wait. :shocked: Unlike yourself I live in a suburb (= continuation of the general sky glow) of Nottingham but when most/all the lights between here and the boundary with the city are turned off I would be 2 miles from the remaining city glow and would expect some improvement in the darkness of the sky. I agree with ArmyAirForce that photos of before and afterwards would be interesting to see and I will certainly be doing that when I get the opportunity. Though its a while off I will post the findings for the interest of members on the forum.

Cheers and clear skies,

Steve

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jnb

jnb

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I could try an estimation of before and after but it would have to be visual and nothing objective which of course then gets into issues of consistency with dark adaptation etc. By the time I come to measure the post shutoff limiting magnitude I would have had more time to dark adapt,. Also if I know I can see a mag 5 object before then I'm guaranteed to see it after simply because I already know where it is so I would be "primed" to see it again and it would provide a reference to see fainter stars after. It would be impossible to see anything other than an improvement even if it's entirely imagined.

I suppose a better way would be do do a visual limiting estimate beforehand and a photographic comparison before and after to get a subject limit and an objective magnitude difference. But at that point I'm not sure any of the kit I can lay my hands on would give me a good enough image to make that comparison. I shall play with some of the cameras I can lay my hands on.

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SteveNickolls

SteveNickolls

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Thanks jnb,

He, he not pushing you into doing this but it would be really interesting to quantify the difference. Shots of the constellations that I have done have been simple exposures using a DSLR on a tripod using a remote switch and bulb exposure-vary time, aperture and ISO then repeat. Thanks for your indulgence.

Cheers,

Steve

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jnb

jnb

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OK. You never know by the time we're around the next new moon we might actually have got rid of this persistent cloudy weather. Although the recent track record suggests otherwise!

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ArmyAirForce

ArmyAirForce

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You don't even need constellation pictures. Just a shot of the back garden with the sky in view to assess the sky glow. Adjust the settings till you get a reasonable exposure, and make a note of the settings/weather so it can be repeated. This would be a start to give an impression of sky glow change. If you can manage a before and after of a constellation, all the better.

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Andy McK

Andy McK

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Neath Port Talbot council are currently rolling out new, white street lighting, so at the mo, I have 1 "orange" and 1 "white" shining in my back garden.

I've just got off the phone to a very helpful lady at the council, as I inquired if these new lights will be dimmed automatically. She stated that the brilliance will dim thoughout the lifetime of the bulb and the council are looking into automatically dimming the lights "in the future" what ever time scale that is (probably when they get round to dimming the lights, Betlguse will pop and we wont be able to see a thing)

I also enquired about having shrouding fitted, they gave me a case number and told me to call back at the end of the month, fingers crossed

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robbie c

robbie c

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Posted

I had a hissy fit last night because council are changing the yellow street light bulbs for white ones and I have just bought an LP filter for yellow light....

BUT

Tonight I find out street lights in the whole town are being turned off between 0000 and 0600.

This means I will never get a proper nights sleep again, but hay ho, small price to pay :grin:

That's great news do you know when this is happening

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