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Garden street light block / filter

jam1e1

By jam1e1
in DIY Astronomer

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darkly

darkly

Posted
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..just need a pair of steel tip boots to prevent reciprocal injury... :)

It has to be a sort of sidey-ways kick (not quite a drop kick), enough to get the whole post vibrating so about 4 feet up works well :eek: with the base / arch of the foot.

With practice you'll soon learn the technique and it gets easier.:D and doesn't hurt, even in baseball boots :p

Did a whole street once when I was a student :D:)

OOOOOps Did I say that out loud !!!:p

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jam1e1

jam1e1

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:) you must have one resilient foot.....or done this on a post-pub excursion!

I like the hex-wrench idea....then maybe leave cover ajar, fill compartment with some nuts/honey and let the local wildlife in to finish it off ......

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sengoksa

sengoksa

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:) Like most here I also have a streetlight probelm :eek:

a few months back there was a power cut over the whole

city... portsmouth in my case :D looking up was almost surreal

seeing the milkyway overhead was stunning :p and yes I

truly did sob when the dam lights came back on was a reminder

to urban stargazers what they are missing ..:D

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darkly

darkly

Posted
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:p you must have one resilient foot.....or done this on a post-pub excursion!

I like the hex-wrench idea....then maybe leave cover ajar, fill compartment with some nuts/honey and let the local wildlife in to finish it off ......

post pub as I recall, back in the day ... blah blah blah :)

Definitely worked though, I'll do it again when I get home, just for old times sake :D:D:D, get my hand back in.

Not sure about the hex key method, main road ...

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itchy

itchy

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When i moved into our village about 11 years ago the lights were the really poor (or good, depending on your POV) old-fashioned white ones that resembled not so much a light as a glow-worm in a jam-jar.

Unfortunately about 4 years ago after some residents complained they were all swapped out for the dark-destroying sodium beasts we all hate. As I had not lived in the village for the required three generations in order to count as a 'local' (they only just talk to me now after 11 years!) my views went unheard/ignored.

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dlp

dlp

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I went out Sunday night with the aim of trying out a new dslr on the scope. I pointed at Andromeda, about 30deg right of one of 'my' street lights. The night was clearly a bit misty as all those water droplets acted as wonderful little lenses for the sodium lamp --

post-21430-133877499949_thumb.jpg

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haitch

haitch

Posted
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:D you must have one resilient foot.....or done this on a post-pub excursion!

I like the hex-wrench idea....then maybe leave cover ajar, fill compartment with some nuts/honey and let the local wildlife in to finish it off ......

Honey roast squirrel :)

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
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Have yout tried this:

1) with simple tools (nr 10 hexwrench I think) unlock the shielding of the electronincs.

2) remove plastic cover for the fuse.

3) unscrew the fuse, light goes out.

4) NICE and DARK.

5) Afterwards just retighten the fuse and the light pops on again.

OK, this may be a little bit bending the law, but in my case it works. Although I have to confess that my streetlight is not directly facing a streetside, but is at the end of an passage to an inner garden of our building. If it was facing the streets I would probably be less tempted to do this, but for me it currently works.

See pic below with the light still on.

Love it!! Pure class!!!

My nieghbour (though in my case 'neighbour' is a relative term) let his car roll off its handbrake and destroy the only light that ever even slightly affected me. If, one day, it is repaired (not an immediate worry since this is France!) you never know what epidemic of handbrake failures might arise in the village...

Olly

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sunoficarus

sunoficarus

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I used to have a nice dark garden until some new people moved into the house at the bottom of my garden some years ago. First thing they did was fit 500w downlights on all the outside walls and floods for the gardens front and back- 'it's security, innit mate'. Any movement by even a mouse in their garden, the whole place lights up like Colditz.

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jam1e1

jam1e1

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found this useful nugget of info on a website:

“the Council can investigate light that affects a person in their property under the statutory nuisance provision of the Environmental Protection Act 1990”

Tried to use it against council - unfortunately didnt have much effect as only applies to private property!

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sunoficarus

sunoficarus

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'it's security, innit mate' - it could be breaking the law. Have a look at CfDS - The Campaign for Dark Skies. An Anti Light Pollution Organisation. if you haven't already!

The Council say that as the lights are PIR activated, it would be difficult and expensive to get anything done, plus, as they pointed out, the sort of well heeled individual who rings his house in security lighting is probably just going to get antagonistic, (it would be easy enough to come out into the garden and trip all the lights anytime he saw me out with the scope), if taken to task.

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sunoficarus

sunoficarus

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Just teasing Lux1:p

If i had my way and no doubt the way of most on here, the street lights would be turned off at 11pm and not put back on till 6am the following morning.

Well, they used to be, most street lights until the 70's went off before midnight except for lights at junctions. Problem was, they used a mechanical time clock that required men in vans to go round every street light twice a year to alter the clocks as the clocks went back and forwards. Along comes the photo cell and big savings in wages were to be had and we are were we are.

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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I use a large fishing umbrella that I tilt to 45 degree angle that way you can move it around and stick it in the ground in front of the offending street lights. However I am thinking of getting some washing up line and making a big black curtain to go round my garden wall.If I cant stand it any more I get in the car and go to my favorite spot on the top of a hill just out of town. You can get a big fishing brolly from argos nice and cheap.

Buy Fishing Umbrella. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

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Quatermass

Quatermass

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Suffolk are switching off some I have written to them asking them to clarify and to do something about the lights at the back of our street.

Had to erect 3 10 feet by 3 feet plastic light blocking curtains to stop the annoying street lights in my back yard its like a dam flood lit football pitch with all those stupid lights glaring away all night and a totall waste of money. There no one in the dam car park after 12 so why do we need them on all night?? answer we dont. Stupid wasteful council they should practise what they preach.:)

(Student riots last night as I predicted to my wife would happen this government sucks!:D)

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