Feeling dejected, another neighbours lights thread

[mikeonnet]

Guys, having just read your comments about neighbours lights, eye patches, towels over your head, ironing stools and what each neighbour is thinking has just made me have a laughing fit for 10 minutes. And then seeing the Dob cage with the rabbit just topped it and made me errupt again. Brilliant!

[Peco4321]

We're a weird bunch. What must go though our neighbours minds when they see these idiots out at all hours, in the freezing cold, eye patches on, red head torches, light shields erected or sat in toilet tents ?  

Lights are out now but cloudy, think I may just have to adapt my observing time and push it all back a few hours. Little bit frustrating but I suppose it could be worse. 

[Beulah]

7 hours ago, mikeonnet said:

And then seeing the Dob cage with the rabbit

I think you'll find there are two of them....

[Peco4321]

Another neighbor is at it now, hey ho, out with the light shield. 

A quick work around, new light shield, a double air bed that popped  

 

[Beulah]

You could get a couple of rolls of this to create a 360° portable obsy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Control-Landscape-Fabric-barrier-matting/dp/B0069PRBJ8

I use this stuff and it's ideal for blocking out LP. Light, too and folds up small. I sewed hems and attached thin rope to tie onto a collapsible gazebo side, telescopic legs up. Good thing about the gazebo side is that it takes seconds to set up and you can adjust height to suit.

[Peco4321]

I need to do something as it is all taking too long to set up. Anyway, mojo back now,taking 45 sec subs of the Pacman Nebula, a new target for me. 

[DAVE AMENDALL]

This info may be useful. But what is marvelous in theory does not always follow in practice especially where councils are concerned...Dave  Artificial light nuisances_ how councils deal with complaints - GOV.UK.html

[ollypenrice]

Neighbours can be legally and humanely removed - by moving house!

lly

PS, It's a curious thing but, house-market wise, solitude is very expensive in the UK and neighbours are free. In France it's quite the opposite. Neighbours cost a fortune while isolation brings huge discounts.

 

[Moonshane]

If only Olly. I am currently trying to sell to move somewhere a bit more conducive to astronomy, yet not too far from my current home. I'd be happy with a longish garden, not overlooked so I can build a small obs at the end with a roll off. Not easy to find though within our budget even though it's £300k.

[25585]

On 15/09/2017 at 13:45, Peco4321 said:

The last few nights have been clear but I am just not enjoying being in the garden and it's down to neighbours lights.  I have a light shield contraption but one neighbor has a big conservatory which shines bright but the main culprit is a very bright upstairs chandelier in a room that seems empty. It illuminates my whole garden and bounces off my house. 

I am torn between seeing them or not, as if I was them, I wouldn't want to be asked to change my life for someone else, they have every right to do what they want in their own home. But also I would hopefully be sympathetic. 

I can not go to dark sites through the week as it all gets too late, weekends I like to relax with a beer as well. 

I almost feel like packing in I'm that fed up. Anyway, that's off my chest now, I may stroll round later for a chat with them, maybe take some wine. 

What you can buy are eyeleted ground sheets of different sizes and colours which can be hung up to block out light along a line. That would block out direct light. For the ambient effect, black on your side, white on the other. I have seen them on ebay, look under camping etc. 

One way to make people draw curtains is to shine a bright(er) light directly at the uncovered window ?

[Beulah]

6 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Neighbours can be legally and humanely removed - by moving house!

lly

PS, It's a curious thing but, house-market wise, solitude is very expensive in the UK and neighbours are free. In France it's quite the opposite. Neighbours cost a fortune while isolation brings huge discounts.

 

Yes, our Gallic friends seem to like the towns and village and are big on communities, leaving the Germans and English with the rural farmhouses...

 

[nightfisher]

On 9/15/2017 at 14:54, LightBucket said:

1200 yards away, thats nearly 3/4 of a mile....wouldn’t have thought that would be much of an issue...!

Depends how bright the lights are, my own situation is the animal waste rendering plant, about 1800 m away but with 8 floodlights that at a guess are probably each about 2kw output, i can sit up in bed and count the lights through the curtains, i also have a neighbour that has a kids room overlooking my astro patch, the dont turn light out or draw curtains, so i tailored my astro to what i can do rather than what i would like to do 

[Dave In Vermont]

Bring a bottle of wine - check +

Explain what it is you do at night looking like a pirate - check +

Offer to buy them a curtain - check +

Invite them over to have a look at some good objects (Saturn) - check +

Anything else?

If all this doesn't work - Congratulations! You have won the "I Have the Worst Neighbor's in the World!" award. I spoke to mine, and anytime they see my outdoor red-light switch-on, they turn off any outside lights of their own. Vermonter's are very friendly and kind people.

Good Luck!

Dave

 

[Macavity]

On 9/19/2017 at 19:51, Peco4321 said:

Another neighbor is at it now, hey ho, out with the light shield.

Yes, I can certainly relate to the brightly lit conservatory that illuminates the whole back wall of a house.
In the old days, a conservatory seemed to be more for summer / daytime usage? Now people are wont
to knock through all / part of the outer wall of the house to turn them into permanent (LIT!) extensions?

There seem to be quite stringent rules re. being overlooked, privacy etc. But even if you start off being
a FAIR distance from your neighbours, through addition of extensions and conservatories, ya can often
practically shake hand with them from the comfort of your own back door / window.

[Pete Presland]

I feel your pain, you are very lucky if you live in the UK and have good astronomy site in your back garden. I have been trying to get the council to dim a street light outside my house for 2 years. Saturn and anything at that altitude is completely blocked by the conifers/trees nearby. The only thing that keeps me interested is being as diverse as possible, including Solar astronomy.

[Dave In Vermont]

The International Dark-Sky Association is a good bunch working to wise people up to how many species are suffering, and even facing extinction altogether, without having true dark periods. The brains of young, human children can't properly develop without periods of darkness. Many other problems as well. So if it be your city or town that won't act on the complaints of some weirdo dressed-up like a pirate with some strange prediliction for looking into long tubes with glass & mirrors - perhaps this can help you:

http://www.darksky.org/

Us Space-Pirates have rights, too,

Dave

[ollypenrice]

21 hours ago, Moonshane said:

If only Olly. I am currently trying to sell to move somewhere a bit more conducive to astronomy, yet not too far from my current home. I'd be happy with a longish garden, not overlooked so I can build a small obs at the end with a roll off. Not easy to find though within our budget even though it's £300k.

Just behind us is a fully renovated old stone-built place with 6 bedrooms, kitchen, large lounge, an adjacent summer kitchen with traditional wood oven, a large swimming pool (with view) beneath its own covered minstrel gallery. Copious workshop space for Dobbing, too! There's a boules court and a couple of fields thrown in. It just changed hands and would have left you with about £100,000 in loose change. (Mind you, their nearest neighbour's well dodgy. English. Never goes to bed, never has any lights on. What's he up to?)

Olly

[BRUN]

well i finally got my scope out last night, the neighbours security light kept going off and its right next to our house so basically floods our garden aswell, i went round to ask if they could switch it off for an hour, she didnt know where the switch was for it

[Macavity]

41 minutes ago, BRUN said:

... she didnt know where the switch was for it

Gentle persistence? The bloke down the bottom o' my garden had NO IDEA
that his 500W security light was tripped by "wind in his Pampass Grass"?
(no pun!) He had "No idea how it worked"... "His Dad was the electrician"!
Busy, but not hostile? Genuinely concerned too. It got fixed eventually... 

I BLAME our culture of mistrust... and sellers of (budget) security lights. 
I do casually wonder why exactly a typical nuclear family: Two adults, two
strapping teens, plus resident DOG are scared of someone breaking in?

 

[BRUN]

everyones security lights always seem to be pointed too high

[DAVE AMENDALL]

On the other side of the village is a well known character who has been to prison a couple of times for breaking and entering. He always said that security lights were one of the most useful things on any property. They helped him find his tools and see the house and garden plan. On one occasion the security light illuminated a faulty window lock beautifully and helped him gain entry.

Without security lights he would have had to shine a torch which looks suspicious and always attracts attention. The places he avoided were places without security lights and where a german Sheperd resided. Food for thought...........Dave

[Gina]

I see no point in so called "security" lights that stay on all night.  I have PIR controlled outside lights but they are only so that I can see my way in when returning home at night.  The yard is covered by a CCTV camera with IR light for watching my entrance day and night.  It points away from my observatory so doesn't interfere with my imaging.

[Peco4321]

Isn't it just typical that these past few nights of total cloud cover, all the neighbours must be in the front rooms of their houses as all the back is in total darkness!!  

[25585]

On 18 September 2017 at 23:25, Peco4321 said:

We're a weird bunch. What must go though our neighbours minds when they see these idiots out at all hours, in the freezing cold, eye patches on, red head torches, light shields erected or sat in toilet tents ?  

Lights are out now but cloudy, think I may just have to adapt my observing time and push it all back a few hours. Little bit frustrating but I suppose it could be worse. 

I suppose the advantage of fracs & cats/maks is that you can sit in a toilet tent and stick your telescope out of the door!

With Newtonians the tent covers your tube's mirror end only.