Light pollution, are we losing the battle?

[cotterless45]

Our new golf driving range , a mile away to the south. Many thanks for obliterating my southern sky.

Do the illuminators care ?

Nick.

[estwing]

oh dear Nick feel for you...and this is the kinda reason why I try to go to Elan every month...

[Moonshane]

No basically.

Terrible Nick, I feel for you mate.

[Scooot]

It seems so hopeless sometimes. Do they leave them on all night?

[estwing]

after all that's gone on in the past few months you'd think Volkswagen couldn't upset any more people....oh wait a min...

[RichM63]

Oh heck Nick, I do hope that you can continue to provide your Observing sketches, I might not comment over much, but I do look at and admire them.

Here we have a 'lights off' law, especially pertaining to wasted energy.

[laudropb]

I have a golf range not far from me Nick. It's almost directly due West, but luckily it has to close at 8pm. They tried to extend this to midnight, but objections, especially from a local farmer meant they were unsuccessful.

[pipnina]

I wonder the same thing, a few years back the local secondary school decided they needed an astroturf football pitch with 40 bright white spotlights and that they'd leave them on ALL NIGHT.

And then there's the city centre that enjoys having lights POINTING UPWARDS to illuminate the buildings.

And then the council says the residential area's LED lights won't be dimmed because of "High pedestrian traffic" despite about 1 person walking down my street an hour, an those lamps are bright

Perhaps an organised letter to the council from the local astronomical society will raise the issue at their next meeting and we may get the lamps dimmed (or better yet, dimmed and turned off between certain hours)

    ~pip

[Floater]

That's bad, Nick. But surely not all night?!!

[StuartJPP]

Do the illuminators care ?

Short answer...no...but they may just be too ignorant to know it is causing issues.

I am so surprised that there aren't any regulations against this, there are regulations for just about everything else. They should have tall lights pointing onto their own property with very minimal spill. LED lighting will only make things worse as there is no incentive to turn them off due to power saving issues.

Where I usually image in Lincolnshire, just outside Horncastle, an abandoned village school was converted into a "yoof detenshun centr". When they had just about finished constructing the site, there were bright LED lights on full blast the entire night. Luckily my father-in-law, who is on the parish council, knows I image and he caught the guy just before they packed up and managed to get him to fit a timer so that they go off at 7pm. The ironic (moronic) thing is that the centre hasn't even been used in the 12 months that it has been there...it would have totally ruined any imaging opportunities if it was left how they originally installed it.

Hopefully one day light pollution/trespass will be treated as severely as noise pollution...but I won't hold my breath.

[gooseholla]

I drove past a house yesterday that had lights all over the front illuminating every square inch of it. Horrible. People down our road more and more are starting to leave not just one bright light on but multiple ones... For some reason the houses behind us have those bright 500w square halogen lamps on the outside of their house at the back!! Just glad I have tall trees that way. But people are becoming more paranoid and well don't really care about what effect it has on anyone else.

John

[DaveS]

Not helped by those "newspapers" that build their trade on stirring up fear and paranoia, by Wailing (Hint) that "We'll all be murdered in our beds" if we don't turn night into day      .

[Dave In Vermont]

If you'd like to prevent this from happening in your location - or help to solve this problem in a location that has already 'gone the way of the Buffalo' - this may well be quite helpful:

http://darksky.org/

Mean, old activist me -

Dave

[mcolbert]

Dave, so you're suggesting that all people with an interest in astronomy move to Sark?

michael

[happy-kat]

Sark is a very nice place, stunning night sky.

[ronin]

I think that you simply have to accept that there will be light pollution especially when in your garden at home - most homes being in a town environment of some nature. A lot of us likely pick the location for reasons that mean LP will be present it is part of an urban environment. I chose mine for the major roads to go N,S,E,W and also trains and the odd airport or two. I have shops and places to go and a decent hospital if I ever need one. All that comes with lights.

Recently 3 small local boroughs in Suffolk have agreed to pay for the lights to be on all night, the main council had plans to turn them off at midnight to save money but the local ones have agreed to paying something like £200,000 to keep them on.

Places like Harlow are maintaining their streetlighting but in honesty Harlow will always have the majority of their lights on so the LP situation is more a case of how much, and it starts high up the scale anyway.

[cotterless45]

Luckily these golfing fellows pack in about 10pm. With darker evenings it is a little frustrating.

We've also had a display of laser strobe lights when a retirement complex of flats opened. My mate contacted the local council, but they weren't interested. He then contacted East Midlands Airport and the great display stopped. We're still waiting for our street lights to be switched off from 12-5. We're at the end of a rolling programme, a euphamism for something ?

I genuinely think that there is an inherent fear of the darkness of the night , somewhere deep in our instincts a need for the glowing fires to be kept stoked against danger.

I don't think that poor illumination is looked on as pollution by our burghers, as only the minority out with scopes are suffering.

I always post with great joy visits to dark sites and how wonderful the sky can be. That's how it could potentially be in the edged of towns and suburbs.

Perhaps we should start a 2015 nomination for " Light Pollution of the Year Award" and send a picture to the winner,

Nick.

[Ruud]

Oh Nick, that is bad. I'm very sorry for you.

[mapstar]

Looks bad Nick and you could be right with the award.

Good that you can at least find a good point out of it through that the lights are turned off at 10pm

My local golf course has a driving range that insists on turning night into day with 10 million watts of sodium lighting (ok so may am a slight exaggeration there) but I don't do much viewing from home and it is over the next hill but point taken.

And we all enjoy those dark sky reports Nick just to remind us what true skies should be like.

Damian

[StuartJPP]

I am not too bothered about LP in existing towns and cities, but I am totally against people moving out into the country and taking their bright lights with them. There just isn't much we can do about well lit towns and cities, unfortunately the cost of lighting is coming down, but there is something that can be done about preserving dark sites before a mass influx of people who are scared of the dark descend upon them...

[Mr Spock]

I have a similar view to the south somenights. There's a sports ground a couple of miles away where they have evening football. I have bad LP anyway but that just tops it off.

[A40farinagolf]

I feel for you, a low level of LP is to be expected in a town / built up environment but the damage doe in the image you've attached is unacceptable.

As usual it's a bit of a postcode lottery, my local council are changing all the sodium light for shrouded LED's and the skies appear to be getting better as the town is gradually moved over to the new lighting.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Join the golf club... and at the next AGM, tell them you want the lights off. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Join the golf club... and at the next AGM, tell them you want the lights off. 

On a serious note Nick, have you spoken with your local council/authority. That does seem to an awful lot of 'light-spill' or whatever terminology they use. It maybe worth a visit or sending the photo to the golf club secretary too.

 

[JimFR]

Our new golf driving range , a mile away to the south. Many thanks for obliterating my southern sky.

Do the illuminators care ?

Nick.image.jpeg

Can you not forward the image to the local authorities and raise a complaint?

The golfists could shield better.

I hope they don't leave them on whike they're closed!