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Help make our skies darker

philf

By philf
in The Astro Lounge

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philf

philf

Posted
Posted

Hi

Can you please help make our skies darker by signing the petition below. It takes less than a minute.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/LightingSavings/

My thinking is that government doesn't listen when people ask for dark skies as its not seen as a sexy vote winner but this government is concerned about their green credentials and also reducing taxes if only to spend the money on something else. So, if the government mandates that councils reduce spending on lighting the ways in which to do it are very few:

1) switch lights off after a certain time

2) only have some of the lights switched on

3) don't power them so high

4) put in new lights that are more efficient and, hence, don't shine upwards

I'm basically saying to them, you can save money, you can reduce your greenhouse emissions, you look good to your friends in Brussels and we all benefit from lower taxes and a better view of the night sky. As there's something in it for them then, you never know, they may then do something. The reason for giving until Jan 2012 is two-fold:

a) these things take time to implement

:) there's an additional benefit with the Olympics by showing what a green country we are

I think there must be at least an outside chance that someone may read the petition and, at the end of the day "you never know".

As you can see, there is something in this proposal for everyone, not just astronomers so, please, please, please sign the petition, ask your friends to sign and ask them to ask their friends to sign. If enough people do then this issue may move up the list on the agenda and we may get some air time and something may be done.

Many thanks and that link once again is http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/LightingSavings/.

Phil

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EA2007

EA2007

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Great idea Phil, I am all for it.

Only the other night I went to a meeting in my local village because the local district council want to place over 900 new houses and a bridge and a link road inbetween my village and the local town (a distance of 1 mile away)

Not only are there a host of environmental issues associated with the plans, but also the impact on the villages identity and also human impacts. It can be safely predicted that the new houses and urban road link will increase light pollution significantly. The district council also wants to re-allocate the towns football club to this new area, which will no doubt mean more ghastly fllod lighting.........they don't seem to realise that there is already a rugby club in the area and an all weather football picth....which doesn't help matters anyway.

Just yesterday I was on a bus (waiting for it to depart) and was pondering the issues (don't worry I aren't that sad, i was just about to listen to some music ha ha) and was looking at some street lighting and wondered 'why are the ones where I live so inefficient i.e. they are the ones that have no shading over the tops...........this got me thinking, the ones near the bus stop had a small circular hood over them.............but what if the hood was larger (about 1 meter in size) and was made from a reflective material i.e. polished metal. This would reflect a lot of the light emitted in a downwards fashion and I assume the voltage/wattage (whatever it is) could be reduced yet still produce the same amount of power!

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philf

philf

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Hi EA

Thats my point exactly - if Givernment just mandates they reduce the spend then they will come up with ways to do it - which may be reflectors and lower voltages ... or going for proximity activation.

The local council will still have some say over the solution but my thinking is that everyone benefits and they'll have to do something ...... possibly taking more notice when they receive requests for humongous lights pointing upwards at buildings for no reason or start building new developments etc

Thanks for signing up

Phil

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EA2007

EA2007

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possibly taking more notice when they receive requests for humongous lights pointing upwards at buildings for no reason or start building new developments etc

Don't get me started on that one! Practically every hotel or church goes by that rule......when I was at uni there was an observatory ontop of one of the main buildings on campus, in my second year there the engineering and arts dept. decided to install some uplighting at the base of the building to make it look 'pretty' on a night.....my lecturer had a few stern words with them when they unveiled it.

Best of luck with the program....if you get any success with it, let me know.

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nitram100

nitram100

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Posted

I've signed it, but nothing will ever change. You will never have dark skies on an island this small with nearly 61 million people, it's ridiculous. I learnt this when 20 new street lights were erected on my street a few years back when the population of the town was going through the roof.

I'll pass this on to everyone i know and forums that i visit.

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