Street lights

[AlistairW]

Hello,

I live in a rural area that has quite black skies, however we are due the new led lights down my street. I am in the process of building some screens in the garden to eliminate some of the direct light, - but was wondering what the overall effect would be. What I mean is - there are a few street lights now that I have to shield from, but overall the village is obviously not experiencing the same light pollution as a city. As the sky 'overall' is not that effected, so is this such a problem in reality ? - As long as I can shield the worst of it I think I am ok I am thinking.

A few extra street light won't effect the Bortle scale for my area massively will it ?

Thanks

Alistair 

[cjdawson]

I think you'll be fine.  As you said, you'll need to shield yourself from direct glare from the lights.  It might also be worth asking the council to consider your needs as an astronomer when they do the lighting install - they should be able to put shielding on the light units that shine on your garden.

LED lights do throw out light in all colours of the spectrum, so forget trying to use a light pollution filter.  The lights themselves to do tend to be a more focused beam, so shouldn't stray as much as for the old sodium style.  So in your case, having the lights switched to LED might actually help to improve the light conditions a little.  Overall, I don't think it'll effect the scale at all, as you are talking about local conditions.  As you say, a single villiage is much smaller than a city, so the cumulative effect is much much lower, and so won't deteriorate the sky conditions anywhere near a much.

[ChrisLX200]

Well it won't improve things... When the atmosphere (transparency) is good then indirect lights have little effect - provided they don't flood your area of course. However, when there is even a small amount of mist then the extra light is scattered about and the background levels seem go up disproportionately. It is like that here, on a good night the surrounding lights are fairly harmless, if there's any mist it can be hopeless. Snow adds to the woes as even more light is reflected upwards.

ChrisH

[laudropb]

I have been through the same process and shielding certainly helps. The main thing is to try to prevent losing your dark adaption. I found that a photographic cloth draped over the eyepiece or even a simple hoody helps with this, but God knows what the neighbours must think.

[Tinker1947]

I live in a dead end at the very end, the old sodium light down the road a bit used to light up the chimney, the new LED light has better shielding so there's no light spread it just causes a round circle of light, my chimney doesn't show any light. your have to wait and see what type of lamp holder they decide to use, another thing my lamp goes out at midnight now.... 

[baggywrinkle]

I have a sodium street light on the corner of my property and I managed to get the local parish council to put a shield on the back of it. It has helped but it is still there.

My other problem is now a neighbour with a particularly offensive pair of security lights. Hopefully once the obsy is built it will shield me from them.

[Tinker1947]

I have a sodium street light on the corner of my property and I managed to get the local parish council to put a shield on the back of it. It has helped but it is still there.

My other problem is now a neighbour with a particularly offensive pair of security lights. Hopefully once the obsy is built it will shield me from them.

Once the Obby is up and running, invite them round.......

[Beulah]

Hello,

I live in a rural area that has quite black skies, however we are due the new led lights down my street. I am in the process of building some screens in the garden to eliminate some of the direct light, - but was wondering what the overall effect would be. What I mean is - there are a few street lights now that I have to shield from, but overall the village is obviously not experiencing the same light pollution as a city. As the sky 'overall' is not that effected, so is this such a problem in reality ? - As long as I can shield the worst of it I think I am ok I am thinking.

A few extra street light won't effect the Bortle scale for my area massively will it ?

Thanks

Alistair 

I have two offending LED street lights.

Away from the street lights, the readings on my SQ Meter reads around 21.6 MPSAS about 6 miles down the road.

With a bit of judicious screening, the skies above my head reads 21.3 MPSAS.

[Tinker1947]

I have two offending LED street lights.

Away from the street lights, the readings on my SQ Meter reads around 21.6 MPSAS about 6 miles down the road.

With a bit of judicious screening, the skies above my head reads 21.3 MPSAS.

So what's the difference in LP from 21.3 to 21.6 doesn't seem very much in difference in the numbers....

[cgarry]

Since our street lights were swapped out for LED lights I have found the one street light that overlooks my garden is much more of a problem.

The new light is so much brighter than the previous light was and the white light is much more of a problem than the old orange sodium light was.  The reason is that the old sodium light did not emit much green light and therefore my lawn appeared pretty dark, but the new white light lights up my lawn like a spotlight in a football stadium and I have to contend with bright light coming up from all angles.  This means that I now have bright light coming from under the black sheets that I hang up as a light shield and it is next to impossible to get dark adapted.

I guess I need to try and get a shield fitted to the light.  At least there are plenty of threads on here describing how people have gone about this.

Cheers,

Chris