New House And Fear Of The Devil Light Pollution

[Astroblagger]

Hello

Im going to be moving soon into a new build so looking at house plans etc trying to predict night time light sources, iv got a good decent 10x10 meters garden,  will i be ok with 2 street lights 15 meters away (Pointing so called in the other direction (evil)) to my south or does that make Astrophotography almost impossible? (hoping Narrowband will save me) Iv always driven 1 hour to my dark sky site setup and run with batteries with my Atik 460 and tried not to freeze to death for 5 hours, iv always been limited with my integration time based on how cold i was, id hoped to eventually, by my age build a wee roll off roof place. Can you show me your ideas verses the ****ing lights and light pollution please. Iv never bothered to set up actually in the city as i thought it would be a wasting a clear night. My mount and tripod are always in the car ready for the elusive clear night  Eventually Hopefully, clear skies soon.  Maybe someones been in the same situation recently?

Thanks

[happy-kat]

I think it would be an idea to find out if the lighting will be incorporated into a turning off at midnight. 

 

[Spaced Out]

We have some new downward directed LED streetlights about 25m away. They aren’t too bad but they are sort of facing away and only one is properly in a direct line of sight, the telescope is shielded from the others by fences and buildings.

When they first appeared I was really shocked (because it used to be a dark village road), I was considering erecting screens to block the light but in the end I just added a DIY flocked dewshield to my reflector and it seems not too bad. I haven't ruled out making a screen or two but I don't feel it is an urgent requirement. Our streetlights also dim by 50% after midnight.

I think I might have more problems if there were more lights in direct line of sight, a bit closer and facing towards us. I would guess that the height of the lights also has an influence too, lower the better ?

[tomato]

I moved into a new build 8 months ago and have a LED street light facing my garden about 20 metres from my imaging set up. Unlike the local council’s stated policy it stays on all night, I suspect the site builder hasn’t bothered to program the timer. My scopes are in a dome and have extended flocked dewshields and so far I haven’t encountered any problems. That said I have yet to image any targets directly over the street light...

If it is a problem and I cannot get the council to switch it off after midnight, I will consider installing some extendable carbon fibre poles and a blackout screen. This will be on my property, go up after dark and come down before sun up so shouldn’t cause any problems.

Either that or use a drone to drop a cover over it when no one is looking.

 

[happy-kat]

If there is a local policy to go off at night someone is paying for the electricity, is it in the council tax bill or is it an unadopted road and in the service charge. 

[Bizibilder]

We now have LED street lights and they do go off around midnight to about 5 am.  Even when on they are not much of a problem.  You can ask the council to shield the lights so you don't get direct light onto your property.

I suspect you may have a much greater problem when all the new neighbours start installing their (in)security lights all over the place and leave them on all night!