small rant...new street light outside house

[ncjunk]

Damn and blast it all to hell!

Just checking the reticle is aligned to the RA and was thinking there was something different about the post which has the power cables to the house (it is right next to Polaris so use it to align). When I noticed they had added a street light to it B@#%ard$ damn it I have been dragging the scope out front to use it whilst I am finishing the shed off. Now I have a blumming great big light in the way.

Not very happy at the moment...the missus comment of most people would be happy to have a new street light installed around here didn´t help...it is only 10 meters away from another one.

I need to go and relax...happy thoughts..

Neil C

[moocher]

****** streetlamps!!! I sympathise with ya i really do!!!!

Alan:(

[The Warthog]

Yeah, I was a little annoyed because the council got around to replacing the one on the corner that had been burned out for two years.

[adamsp123]

Really sorry to hear this, it just seems such a blasted waste of energy, a prof of mathematics on radio 4 recently said that by turning off all the street lamps would significantly cut back CO2 emissions, I am not too sure of the exact amount, but it was pretty big.

Clearly the majority of the population would like night turned into day but I see no reason why the majority of the lights couldn't go off quite early, say 10.30pm as most folk are home by then.

Pizza

[brianb]

Now I have a blumming great big light in the way.

If you're in England, and it's shining onto your land, and you consider it a nuisance, you should be able to have the Council fit a shield.

Doesn't stop the waste of energy, though.

Incidentally the correct value seems to be that, worldwide, one quarter of all the electricity generated is used to power lighting that no-one is using. That's more contribution to carbon dioxide emissions than all the motor vehicles and the aviation industry put together.

[Wedge]

I am not anti streetlight, because to be honest I can indeed see the benefits of having them...

What I am against, is badly directed lights which shine into the air - it would be much more efficient to have fewer lights, on higher poles which shone more light onto the ground while protecting our sky!!

Just my two pence!

[ncjunk]

I live in spain so all the lights around me are badly directed. It is not all bad as it is still better than where I was in the uk for light pollution but I could have done without them adding one shining into the front of my house.

In some places I have seen lights that are parallel to the ground so directing light straight down but in the villages they still tend to put them up in the quickest,easiest way they can so it is cheap lights at an angle of probably 25 deg or more.

I will give it a go anyway tonight and see what difference it makes.

still, it is always nice to moan about things every now and again!

Neil C

[661-pete]

I know the feeling! But I also know, in any random sample of concerned residents, if I should speak out against streetlighting I'd quickly find myself in a minority of one. After all, it stands to reason: streetlights make people feel 'safer'. They 'deter' burglars (they don't! A skilled burglar will be perfectly adept at 'losing' himself in the glare). They make our roads 'safer' (as a frequent cyclist -day and night - I ought to feel the benefit, oughtn't I? No! I feel more comfortable cycling on a dark unlit road, provided I have good quality lights on the bike. Motorists will easily pick me out - and I'll see them in good time too).

And if I find myself on board an aeroplane on a clear night - typically cruising at well over 30000 feet (say 10Km) and I look down - there's the orange glare clear as daylight - easy to pick out main roads, towns, even individual hamlets. If that light is all splashing up to meet my eyes 10Km aloft, think what it must be doing to the night sky!

But streetlights are here to stay - at least as long as 'civilisation' is here to stay. I can't see any way out.

Forgive an old cynic's rant!

[ncjunk]

Rant away Pete! I agree with you on that.

:-D

NC

[Tiny]

We have a street light. It is 0.7 miles away. Problem is the police and councils want to socially include all us country peasants and save us from the current level of 0 night crime by installing lots more lights. And you can't tell them as for any person saying no lights you get a dozen who demand them as their right - being frightened of the dark.

In a local small town due to budget constraints the council switched 2/3rd of the street lights off. The result was an outcry by the local preesure groups who feared for the safety of old people and children. They got the lights put on again.

Strangely enough before they did a reporter visited the town in the dark and found the old people unbothered and the children playing football in the dark quite happy. In fact the only unhappy ones were pressure group members (who admitted it did not effect them but...) and teenagers who liked to parade in the town square under the massed lights to strut their stuff but now wandered round with no-one able to see them in the dark. One more thing - the kids thought it was really neat to see the stars and actually play football by the light of the moon!

[Beulah]

We have a street light. It is 0.7 miles away. Problem is the police and councils want to socially include all us country peasants and save us from the current level of 0 night crime by installing lots more lights. And you can't tell them as for any person saying no lights you get a dozen who demand them as their right - being frightened of the dark.

In a local small town due to budget constraints the council switched 2/3rd of the street lights off. The result was an outcry by the local preesure groups who feared for the safety of old people and children. They got the lights put on again.

Strangely enough before they did a reporter visited the town in the dark and found the old people unbothered and the children playing football in the dark quite happy. In fact the only unhappy ones were pressure group members (who admitted it did not effect them but...) and teenagers who liked to parade in the town square under the massed lights to strut their stuff but now wandered round with no-one able to see them in the dark. One more thing - the kids thought it was really neat to see the stars and actually play football by the light of the moon!

Just goes to show the majority of us are indoors at night anyway.

This is a really interesting thread. I am staggered by the facts I read.

Some would say that lighting is needed for security for businesses too, with the advent of CCTV...but even that excuse can be refuted because there are a lot of night vision cameras that are pretty good these days, and the technology is so cheap it is incorporated as a standard feature into a lot of domestic digicams....

I've just spent the last hour studying light pollution maps on the web and am totally shocked at how much light pollution has increased since 1993 - obviously that is including major housing developments, and even the advent of outdoor lighting (did you know a halogen lamp uses the same amount of electricity as a modest powered vacuum cleaner!)

[Beulah]

EDIT: just found out tonight that CCTV cams do have a night vision facility....*sigh*

We gotta start putting the pressure on. I'm willing to sign every petition there is on light pollution.

[daryl_lincoln]

I made this on microsoft worldwide, It a hybrid road map and sat image at night. It just shows how much light is around. Also shows me where to head in lincolnshire for dark skys.

1st image posted on here so hope it works

[Coco]

Ladders and a aerosol of satin black to mask your side of the light?

Failing that ... air rifle!

Seriously tho. Complain to the council, our friends over the other side of the block had a new light removed as it effected there sleep ?????

[Beulah]

Seriously tho. Complain to the council, our friends over the other side of the block had a new light removed as it effected there sleep ?????

Yes, it can do..

There was a lamp outside my home when I lived in the town years ago.

Coming from the country where it was pitch black, I could actually read by the sickly orange lamplight shining directly into my room.

I had to wear a black mask to be able to sleep at night.

As a student at uni I had no "say"....

[Odd Dob]

Wasn't turning street lights off trialled in the UK recently, and everybody complained?

It's a shame, beyond a certain time, it does seem a bit odd to be aggressively illuminating everything.

[Doc]

I have one outside the front of our house as well. I've moaned numerous times and nothings been done. I can have a shield put up but will cost me £80.

[PortableAstronomer]

After some councils started a trial of switching off streetlights between midnight and 5am, here's a blowing account suggesting that even other 'scientists' are against us:

Turning off street lights could put motorists at risk - Telegraph

No wonder why the public are hellbent on eliminating nighttimes. Some comments on local newspapers (I remember one recently in the Southend Echo), such as 'these silly anoraks and their telescopes' and 'they want to look through their telescopes at the sky, yeah right', just demonstrated what pathetic & arrogant ruling attitudes that we are up against.

Chris