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Oh dear..is this the end of my astronomy..?!!

emadmoussa

By emadmoussa
in The Astro Lounge

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Stu

Stu

Posted
Posted

Not cheeky at all. They had two attempts at sorting mine out before I was satisfied. Not happy, but satisfied at least.

Your shield seems far more sophisticated than mine, which involves gaffa tape by the looks of it!!

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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leelee970

leelee970

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Emad, just one question - is there anyone else in your street/area that find these lights intrusive - if so there is power in numbers.

In my village we had a flood (drains all blocked). The road was closed off for about a month because it was so deep. The poor shop keeper was losing so much passing trade but was getting nowhere alone.

In the end about twelve of us phoned up the council and that afternoon they unblocked the drains and flood was gone - result.

Lee

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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Emad, just one question - is there anyone else in your street/area that find these lights intrusive - if so there is power in numbers.

In my village we had a flood (drains all blocked). The road was closed off for about a month because it was so deep. The poor shop keeper was losing so much passing trade but was getting nowhere alone.

In the end about twelve of us phoned up the council and that afternoon they unblocked the drains and flood was gone - result.

Lee

Wouldn't count much on my neighbors...they probably love the bright light, and can't take chances!

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jason.p

jason.p

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I've just emailed the council asking what their policy was regarding light pollution, dark sky initiatives and energy saving street lighting. I've had an automated reply saying it's been forwarded to the relevant dept. So far, so good!!

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DaveS

DaveS

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Fingers crossed...

I had a pleasant lady round canvassing for the local council elections. I won't say which party as it's not allowed, and not relevant anyway.

Well, I immediately brought up the question of light pollution, and was up-front about being an astronomer, and how it was a pain, this led on to her holiday in spain and how bright the stars were. She went on to talk about the new LED lamps they were installing, so I mentioned two principles, of "only just enough" and "only where needed". I also brought up the hoo-haa about the too-bright lights installed by a neighbouring borough.

As she was on the health part of the council I mentioned excessive light in peoples bedrooms and how it could disturb sleep. She agreed, and said her daughter's new baby was upset by too much light.

While this conversation was progressing she was noting things down on a card, so hopefully something will reach the right ears.

But I'm not holding my breath.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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This is what it looks outside my backyard now houses 3 story at the back Mars is over the orange light (yes you cant see it) and to the left is a new Led light that's at least 40 Feet away.

One thing though, the LED is not creating much of a glare on top of it, while the orange is going allover the place. However, the orange could be filtered if you had too...not ideal for visual, but it should help for imaging.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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As im visual only the orange is very intrusive if they swapped the orange with the Led like you said not much light above them be a lot better for me.

 Bear in mind, while the LEDs are way more controlled, they tend to be a plague if they're in your light path. However, if you can block the light with a screen or something similar you'll still get a clean sky on top of it...it's just the direct glare from the top down, not everywhere.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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So the Council called back saying that these are the only shields available at the moment and they don't have any other type to improve the situation. However, they say, the light will be dimmed by 25% in six months (apparently it's a syncing period) and will usually be dimmed down to 50% after mid night.

So basically the default brightness will be 75% of what it is now and half that after midnight.

Ah well..not all bad news...at least to know it'll be better in the near future.

My paint brush is ready now :)

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mitchelln

mitchelln

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Surely it just needs to be pulled down slightly to make the cut off angle steeper...

I suspect looking at it that it is a single piece that clips onto the CFL element. The council won't mod an off the shelf component.

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Ant

Ant

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Once again we have had to edit a post to remove a suggestion of using an air rifle to "fix" a street light issue. I really am at a loss as to how many times I have to say this...

CRIMINAL DAMAGE IS ILLEGAL - do not post suggestions of criminal damage on SGL.

This includes air rifles, black paint, tampering with the electrics (you could die) and anything else that prevent it from working.

If anyone unclear on what I mean with the above can they PM me and I'll spell it out.

Ant

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wookie1965

wookie1965

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Once again we have had to edit a post to remove a suggestion of using an air rifle to "fix" a street light issue. I really am at a loss as to how many times I have to say this...

CRIMINAL DAMAGE IS ILLEGAL - do not post suggestions of criminal damage on SGL.

This includes air rifles, black paint, tampering with the electrics (you could die) and anything else that prevent it from working.

If anyone unclear on what I mean with the above can they PM me and I'll spell it out.

Ant

If they cannot get from your post i dont think they ever will., Fairly explanatory in anyone's eyes.  

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Alien 13

Alien 13

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You might not have seen it - I got to it pretty quick ;)

Hopefully the thread can now return to the original topic without further incident :)

This is a very good and important thread and its good to see the Mods keeping it alive.

Any way back to the topic from what i have seen locally the overall effect is a big improvement unless you are unlucky enough to be in a hotspot.

Alan

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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Back to the topic, I'm not sure whether I didn't pay attention before, but I noticed with high humility 95% + these lights tend to create a veil of white light in the shape of a pyramid. There's also about 50cm of halo on top.

So far I haven't tried them with a telescope, but I'm concerned unless blocked properly a lot of humidity will make their glare a lot worse. Then again, I used to notice the same thing with the orange sodium, but can't remember how bad it was in comparison.

This halo could be overlooked if the lamp post wasn't so damn high - in my case - on a street that's already at least 70cm higher than my garden observing point.

Now, I'm counting on the 75% general dimming and 50% after midnight dimming. In principle this could make a massive difference...can I take their word for it? I'm not sure...can I delay getting my gear back until then...?! I don't think I can...

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