Street lamps driving me crazy

[Knighty2112]

After getting my new Altair Astro 102mm f11 scope out briefly over the last few nights for brief views between some cracks in the clouds, I realise that because of the length of the scope I cannot easily get into the few dark places I use when I just use my shorter f5 ST120 frac, and am sadly exposed to the full glare of the street lamps in front and behind my house. So after taking inspiration from Nick (Cotterless45) and others on here on SGL I decided to buy some heavy duty black backdrop so I can  drape a curtain around my scope to shield from the pain in the b** light pollution that those blumming street lamps give off. I've ordered up an initial 3 metres length of the stuff (the drop of the material is also 3 metres), and debating whether to hang this cloth out on some ropes or strong washing line, or to build a light framework to go around the front and sides of the scope. The framework might be the best idea as I could also use it in the front garden too as there are no close structures to hang rope or washing lines on to, but would also want to be able to break it down for easy storage in my house. Need to get a few ideas on how I might build this frame perhaps. Tent poles spring to mind perhaps, so need to look into that maybe. Anyone else built any similar framework around their scope, other than attaching it onto any fencing to block out the light?

Cheers,

Gus

Hope you dont mind but edited the title, nightfisher

[happy-kat]

What about something like a bee keeper hat only it is blackout material so your head is under cover where ever you observe from.

[Knighty2112]

28 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

What about something like a bee keeper hat only it is blackout material so your head is under cover where ever you observe from.

The neighbors think I'm weird enough already with my nocturnal Astro pursuits, so seeing me in a beekeeping hat in the dark would make them think I was positively insane! Hehe!  

[Knighty2112]

After looking at tent poles they were not really suitable for what I wanted to do, and some that may have been where way too expensive, so settled for the B & Q option of using 40mm UPV piping which are 2 metres in length, with assorted joints to link it together. Only bought enough so far to make up a front panel only to test how good it will go together, but as the joint parts push on very tightly (it is for waste water anyway so will be pretty tight) it should work out Ok I think. Early days yet (I've still got to receive the black back cloth I've ordered anyway), so I'll update this as I go along.  

[Astro Imp]

Good luck with your screen, I'll be interested to see your progress as I really need something similar.

[Knighty2112]

Thanks. Still early days yet, but got quite a few ideas to make it flexible and more importantly easiliy moveable for actual usage. Won't be doing anymore work now till next weekend on it, but I'll keep this updated all the way to the final product.  

[Bizibilder]

If you find the best position for it in use you could use a couple of rotary washing line ground spikes to to drop the frame into - and get some brownie points if they can double up for the real rotary washing line.

[Joe12345]

What about making a beach windshield type thing? You could use 1.5-2m posts with flocking in between.

[Knighty2112]

3 hours ago, Bizibilder said:

If you find the best position for it in use you could use a couple of rotary washing line ground spikes to to drop the frame into - and get some brownie points if they can double up for the real rotary washing line.

Good thinking.  

[Knighty2112]

1 hour ago, Joe12345 said:

What about making a beach windshield type thing? You could use 1.5-2m posts with flocking in between.

I did see something like that when I was getting ideas for it. I want a structure I can move about realatively easily if possible, and the framework I'm thinking about gives me that I think, plus one or two other options too if I want to have small window area at the front to allow target objects lower down in th sky too. Of course until I get it all together I don't really know how good it will be, but fingers crossed anyway.  

[weareborg]

I've been looking into this very same thing over the past few days so I'll be watching your progress very closely. Where did you get the black  backdrop from?

 

Andy

[Knighty2112]

7 hours ago, weareborg said:

I've been looking into this very same thing over the past few days so I'll be watching your progress very closely. Where did you get the black  backdrop from?

 

Andy

I bought it from this site Partyrama. Should arrive for the weekend hopefully, so I'll let you know how good it is. Just realised I need a little more than I ordered initially, but I'm going to see how it is first before I order up a little more.

http://www.partyrama.co.uk/real-heavy-duty-black-backdrop-decomolton-300gsm-3m-drop-sold-by-the-meter/?gclid=COWA7YrI984CFeYp0wodc08EdQ#fo_c=488&fo_k=293f9291b93d81498fe3cfea06baa82f&fo_s=gplauk

 

[Beulah]

Weed control fabric is a lot cheaper. I decided on a synthetic fabric as it is stored in a shed outside and therefore won't rot, etc.

 

[Knighty2112]

16 minutes ago, Beulah said:

Weed control fabric is a lot cheaper. I decided on a synthetic fabric as it is stored in a shed outside and therefore won't rot, etc.

 

Never though of that. Good idea.  

[Beulah]

10 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Never though of that. Good idea.  

It's blumming good stuff. I double sided mine for total blackout...

[whipdry]

Locally we have Philips Iridium street lamps, these came in two types with flat or bowl shaped covers if they are of simular type where you are perhaps you can get the shades shown below fitted by contacting the local council.

May help a little,

Peter

[Knighty2112]

I'll contact them and see if they can do anything. Although I'm not going to hold my breathe here! Hehe!  

[N3ptune]

at my spot they replaced 4 or 5 heads of sodium lights street lights with LEDS, it was wonderful, the focus if pointed to the road only there is not a ray of light out of the focus. At first I thought they had remove the lights completely!

--> 1 month later I come back to the same spot and the LEDS were gone, there was 3 more posts and they put back brand new sodium lights heads. They are SO STRONG it's incredible, they killed my spot completely. 60% of the light illuminates the forest..100 meters away from the road.

It's a total joy killer.

[Knighty2112]

14 minutes ago, N3ptune said:

at my spot they replaced 4 or 5 heads of sodium lights street lights with LEDS, it was wonderful, the focus if pointed to the road only there is not a ray of light out of the focus. At first I thought they had remove the lights completely!

--> 1 month later I come back to the same spot and the LEDS were gone, there was 3 more posts and they put back brand new sodium lights heads. They are SO STRONG it's incredible, they killed my spot completely. 60% of the light illuminates the forest..100 meters away from the road.

It's a total joy killer.

One step forward, two steps backs it seems! That sucks!  

[joe1950]

39 minutes ago, N3ptune said:

at my spot they replaced 4 or 5 heads of sodium lights street lights with LEDS, it was wonderful, the focus if pointed to the road only there is not a ray of light out of the focus. At first I thought they had remove the lights completely!

--> 1 month later I come back to the same spot and the LEDS were gone, there was 3 more posts and they put back brand new sodium lights heads. They are SO STRONG it's incredible, they killed my spot completely. 60% of the light illuminates the forest..100 meters away from the road.

It's a total joy killer.

Someone may have complained that the LEDs weren't lighting the area sufficiently.

 

Where I reside with the lights and the trees, it's almost impossible to see the sky at all - not that it's anything to write home about anyway. 

I ventured out a few evenings ago to have a view of Saturn. The neighbor next to me has a porch light that is so bright, all the other lights in the area dim for a second when he turns it on. Across the street is a neighbor's post lamp and it is almost as bad.

Saturn went behind a tree so I had to move from near the house to near the street. I had a clear view of Saturn, but then the procession of cars with those blinding new lights started to pass by. It isn't a busy street, but as soon as one car passes, another is seen down the road coming my way. If they happen to contain juveniles coming from of going to a party, there is usually an unflattering remark or two directed my way. Science isn't 'cool.'

Finally, the daughter of another neighbor across the street and friend pulled up and parked in front of the house. I guess they had some further conversation to finish and sat in the vehicle with the headlamps on the whole time. They couldn't have been more than 10M away from me and I'm struggling to shield the light from blinding my vision. But they didn't get the message.

After about 15 minutes, I uttered a few low level colorful suggestions and packed up.

I'm looking forward to the cooler weather. The sky is a little darker, seeing is better, the leaves are off the trees and the locals don't venture out quite as much. Not terribly better, but better.

Best to all. joe

[N3ptune]

18 minutes ago, joe1950 said:

Someone may have complained that the LEDs weren't lighting the area sufficiently.

 

Where I reside with the lights and the trees, it's almost impossible to see the sky at all - not that it's anything to write home about anyway. 

I ventured out a few evenings ago to have a view of Saturn. The neighbor next to me has a porch light that is so bright, all the other lights in the area dim for a second when he turns it on. Across the street is a neighbor's post lamp and it is almost as bad.

Saturn went behind a tree so I had to move from near the house to near the street. I had a clear view of Saturn, but then the procession of cars with those blinding new lights started to pass by. It isn't a busy street, but as soon as one car passes, another is seen down the road coming my way. If they happen to contain juveniles coming from of going to a party, there is usually an unflattering remark or two directed my way. Science isn't 'cool.'

Finally, the daughter of another neighbor across the street and friend pulled up and parked in front of the house. I guess they had some further conversation to finish and sat in the vehicle with the headlamps on the whole time. They couldn't have been more than 10M away from me and I'm struggling to shield the light from blinding my vision. But they didn't get the message.

After about 15 minutes, I uttered a few low level colorful suggestions and packed up.

I'm looking forward to the cooler weather. The sky is a little darker, seeing is better, the leaves are off the trees and the locals don't venture out quite as much. Not terribly better, but better.

Best to all. joe

Yeah that's it a complain.

I understand what you say about people too, the teenagers especially and a lot of adults too, they don't know how behave and how to be low profile at night with their cars. If it's not the lights, it's the muffler of the old beaten clunker with no more catalytic capacity or intentionally noisy mufflers. 

On my last observation I had the visit of an old diesel Jetta with no more muffler, I mean, it's even annoying for the farmer inside his own house and eventually he will take actions to prevent activity at the end of the road....

What can I say? Not much.

--> It's not easy to negotiate with these nuisances.

 

[Charic]

........soon the vegetation will fall off the trees, and my garden will be lit from 3 angles?
I can still find some darkness in the shadows around  my (getting smaller?) garden,  or use my dob tent, but the simplest method and quickest is to use a dark towel over the head, trying to avoid  covering the  scopes aperture ?

I find just by shielding my eyes alone  before looking through the eyepiece, there is a difference, and blinding when I come back out to face the street light!
There is no better place than getting away from man-made lighting, its just the effort required.

[Knighty2112]

1 minute ago, Charic said:

........soon the vegetation will fall off the trees, and my garden will be lit from 3 angles?
I can still find some darkness in the shadows around  my (getting smaller?) garden,  or use my dob tent, but the simplest method and quickest is to use a dark towel over the head, trying to avoid  covering the  scopes aperture ?

I find just by shielding my eyes alone  before looking through the eyepiece, there is a difference, and blinding when I come back out to face the street light!
There is no better place than getting away from man-made lighting, its just the effort required.

Yeah, my neighbors just recently cut down a tree or shrub (not sure what it was actually) that at least kept some light from one of the street lamps down. Now it glares in to my garden just like the rest of them! Sheesh!  

[Charic]

I`ll be sourcing a new dark site soon, need to test my latest premium EPs just  to see how well they compete  with my Starguiders.
For Binoculars, I'm less than a mile from a great site,  where the sky can be so brightly lit with starlight, I see my own shadow, but I need darker conditions to eek out the best in these eyepieces, because for now, only the field of view is  of any noticeable improvement, so I have a place in mind about 45 mins drive away, NO LIGHTS 
Till then its just a blanket for me, although having said that, just recently, I gifted a shed to a neighbour, and its quite remarkable how different a few  feet in one direction, can make, to your viewing experience.  From the sheds new position, I can't directly see any one of the 5 visual street lights that are apparent from my view/garden.

[Knighty2112]

I have used a blanket before over my head. Whilst this is OK whilst you are looking through the EP, the problem is when you come out from underneath to move the scope to a new target you loose all that dark adaptation.