City Council Comes Good

[AMcD]

About three years ago I asked our local councillor whether it would be possible to modernise an old sodium streetlight on a path at the back of our house, which shines directly onto my observatory and my neighbours' gardens.   I explained the concept of light pollution and the adverse effect it has on amateur astronomy and astrophotography.  He said he would see what he could do, and I heard no more.  I have just noticed that the light has now been fitted with a new, shielded fitting that virtually eliminates stray light whilst maintaining proper illumination of the path.  My observatory is now devoid of orange glow.   It took a while, but it was worth asking. 🙂

[Naughty Neal]

Good news and a result for every one.

[Knighty2112]

Great news. Wish the local council here would do something with the lights that glare in my front garden especially!  

[RobertI]

Result!

[scotty1]

Was just checking outside and with no moon it seemed quite dark for a suburban area. 

Looked up light pollution maps and found this. I thought the timeline on the light pollution map was running backwards.

This is quite a basic map, but seems to show a reduction in LP over the last 30 yrs. Although locally I have found skyglow worse than it was 20yrs ago, because of new buildings and houses near the town centre. Quite a few estates on the outskirts of town turn most of the streetlights off at 23.30.

 

https://www.hillarys.co.uk/skyglow/

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by scotty1

[OK Apricot]

That is an encouraging set of data to be honest, a carrot at the very least. Where I live the LP isn't too bad, it's a good B5 or so which is respectable for a medium sized town. There's only so much you can do though when a street light towers over your garden. They've dimmed this and fitted a shield and yet... 

... It's still too damn bright. More needs to be done but until then, the idea of a 9m painters' extension pole and a flap of cardboard might have to do to block it completely 😰

[Fraunhoffer]

Great news. 
Sadly 2 years after getting a shield fitted to a streetlight at the bottom of our garden, the light was changed for a new spangly LED one where the shield no longer fitted 😞

[DaveS]

10 hours ago, AMcD said:

About three years ago I asked our local councillor whether it would be possible to modernise an old sodium streetlight on a path at the back of our house, which shines directly onto my observatory and my neighbours' gardens.   I explained the concept of light pollution and the adverse effect it has on amateur astronomy and astrophotography.  He said he would see what he could do, and I heard no more.  I have just noticed that the light has now been fitted with a new, shielded fitting that virtually eliminates stray light whilst maintaining proper illumination of the path.  My observatory is now devoid of orange glow.   It took a while, but it was worth asking. 🙂

That's great news, but why does the path need to be illuminated? Don't people there have torches? Seriously, there are no streetlights here, I think the nearest are about 4-5 miles away, when people go out at night they carry torches.

[AMcD]

5 hours ago, scotty1 said:

Was just checking outside and with no moon it seemed quite dark for a suburban area. 

Looked up light pollution maps and found this. I thought the timeline on the light pollution map was running backwards.

This is quite a basic map, but seems to show a reduction in LP over the last 30 yrs. Although locally I have found skyglow worse than it was 20yrs ago, because of new buildings and houses near the town centre. Quite a few estates on the outskirts of town turn most of the streetlights off at 23.30.

 

https://www.hillarys.co.uk/skyglow/

 

What has really struck me is just how much the new light fitting reduced the amount of stray light.  Our back garden and our neighbours' back gardens form a closed square, the whole of which was bathed in orange light from this single streetlamp, much like in @OK Apricot's photo.  The new fitting has eliminated all of this.  In the circumstances, I can understand why an increase in the use of such fittings would contribute appreciably to the reduction in light pollution per the map.  We too have seen the streetlights turned down in our area in addition.

[AMcD]

2 minutes ago, DaveS said:

That's great news, but why does the path need to be illuminated? Don't people there have torches? Seriously, there are no streetlights here, I think the nearest are about 4-5 miles away, when people go out at night they carry torches.

I think that asking city center dwellers to carry torches in place of streetlamps might carry certain risks come election time 😂

[DaveS]

I guess that's true.

[Carbon Brush]

LED street lighting does have better radiated angle. When my village moved to LED, my back garden (50M+ from the road) became darker.
On the main road though, you can read a book at night!

Strange really. The principal justification for lighting in my village is the traffic on the main road.
As vehicle lighting improves, we rely less on roadside lighting. Remember the little pool of yellow light cast (never far enough) forward from your Ford Prefect?😁

During the summer, the lamp posts have been renewed. The existing were rusting. Some posts have been resited. It did worry me.
However, it is not a problem.
The Hyper -Intelligent-Mega-Beings at Nottinghamshire County Council have thoughtfully placed quite a few of the fittings in tree canopies🤣
You couldn't make it up.

[Richard N]

11 hours ago, AMcD said:

About three years ago I asked our local councillor whether it would be possible to modernise an old sodium streetlight on a path at the back of our house, which shines directly onto my observatory and my neighbours' gardens.   I explained the concept of light pollution and the adverse effect it has on amateur astronomy and astrophotography.  He said he would see what he could do, and I heard no more.  I have just noticed that the light has now been fitted with a new, shielded fitting that virtually eliminates stray light whilst maintaining proper illumination of the path.  My observatory is now devoid of orange glow.   It took a while, but it was worth asking. 🙂

Well worth emailing your Councillor to thank them and tell them how it has helped. That might move it up their agenda and help someone else with a similar problem. 

[scotty1]

What is also eating into rural dark skies is the expansion of towns. Noticeable is that what were once small lanes with less light pollution a mile or two from town, have become engulfed into new housing/industrial estates. 

[AMcD]

9 hours ago, Richard N said:

Well worth emailing your Councillor to thank them and tell them how it has helped. That might move it up their agenda and help someone else with a similar problem. 

That is a very good idea.  I will drop him a line.