I hate light polution!!!

Do the rest of you have problems with this? It's really quite amazing to
see all the useless lights on at night in the northern suburbs of Boston,
around the north shore, that just make the night sky look like noon-time.
If anyone else lives around there, fill me in on where I need to go! I've
been searching a couple times at night and have found nothing. So
aggravating.

I hear ya! I have an observatory at 6200' in the Southern Alps of New
Zealand. It's so dark and quiet there that I sometimes almost wonder
if I've died. A sharp-eyed colleague claims to have seen (unaided) to
Mag 8 (pfft, yeah, right, the liar... :-)

But I often have to return to New Zealan's largest city for various
reasons, and it almost makes me weep to see how bad the light
pollution has become. It's not as bad as a big US city, but it's still
bad enough.

I wonder how many kids have never seen the Milky Way?

:-(


Gary.


On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 04:18:33 GMT, "Nate Pitcher"
wrote:

Do the rest of you have problems with this? It's really quite amazing to
see all the useless lights on at night in the northern suburbs of Boston,
around the north shore, that just make the night sky look like noon-time.
If anyone else lives around there, fill me in on where I need to go! I've
been searching a couple times at night and have found nothing. So
aggravating.

"Nate Pitcher" wrote in
news:tqT6b.384838$YN5.256974@sccrnsc01:

Do the rest of you have problems with this? It's really quite amazing
to see all the useless lights on at night in the northern suburbs of
Boston, around the north shore, that just make the night sky look like
noon-time. If anyone else lives around there, fill me in on where I
need to go! I've been searching a couple times at night and have
found nothing. So aggravating.



Visit www.darksky.org and even start a public awarenes campain in your
area. Light pollution laws/ordinances are already in place for 34 US cities
and in Czech Republic, Lombardy Italy, Calagary Canada to name a few. And
this is mainly due to the dedication of the astronomical community in these
areas to turn public and administrators opinion around to realizing the
cost/energy advantages of installing efficient full-cutoff light fixtures
in their communities.

It ain't gonna happen if you just moan about it!

Martin Lewicki

Did aanyone in the US northeast do any view during the electricity balckout
last month?

You can always move to North Korea...

Mike wrote:

Did aanyone in the US northeast do any view during the electricity
balckout last month?

You can always move to North Korea...

Well, not to come down too hard on the North Koreans. Especially
after the blackout in the Northeast, seemingly specifically in areas
where the electrical systems were privatized. Profit oriented
utilities tend to put less effort into maintainence.
Be that as it may, light pollution is a big problem and we could
conserve energy as well as improve seeing with a little care in the
design of outdoor lighting.
Photons have no politics.

--
Regards
Fred

Remove FFFf to reply, please

I agree....it bugs me when I'm driving down the street at 11 o'clock at
night, and seeing things like soccer fields and and streets where there are
no houses just lit up to the point where the whole sky is washed out. And
does every store need to keep EVERY single light on? I want to spend a week
in the mountains and stay out all night every night observing. :-)
"Fred Williams" wrote in message
.. .
Mike wrote:

Did aanyone in the US northeast do any view during the electricity
balckout last month?

You can always move to North Korea...

Well, not to come down too hard on the North Koreans. Especially
after the blackout in the Northeast, seemingly specifically in areas
where the electrical systems were privatized. Profit oriented
utilities tend to put less effort into maintainence.
Be that as it may, light pollution is a big problem and we could
conserve energy as well as improve seeing with a little care in the
design of outdoor lighting.
Photons have no politics.

--
Regards
Fred

Remove FFFf to reply, please

Most utilities are private. It's the muni's that have a problem with money.

Fred Williams wrote:

Mike wrote:


Did aanyone in the US northeast do any view during the electricity
balckout last month?

You can always move to North Korea...


Well, not to come down too hard on the North Koreans. Especially
after the blackout in the Northeast, seemingly specifically in areas
where the electrical systems were privatized. Profit oriented
utilities tend to put less effort into maintainence.
Be that as it may, light pollution is a big problem and we could
conserve energy as well as improve seeing with a little care in the
design of outdoor lighting.
Photons have no politics.

Fred Williams wrote in
:

Mike wrote:

Did aanyone in the US northeast do any view during the electricity
balckout last month?

You can always move to North Korea...

Well, not to come down too hard on the North Koreans. Especially
after the blackout in the Northeast, seemingly specifically in areas
where the electrical systems were privatized. Profit oriented
utilities tend to put less effort into maintainence.
Be that as it may, light pollution is a big problem and we could
conserve energy as well as improve seeing with a little care in the
design of outdoor lighting.
Photons have no politics.


Yes, but people do. Don't mean to harp on this but it will continue to get
worse unless *we*, the people, get involved with administrators and the
community about wasted light. Eg our local astronomical society approached
local government with a draft proposal for improved lighting like refitting
with full cutoff fixtures and other recommendations. All recomendations
were accepted but for one.

If you (as astronomers) don't do it, no one else will and you'll get just
what's inevitably coming down the road - more and brighter lights spraying
light everywhere and up into the sky in your district.

Martin Lewicki

Yes, but people do. Don't mean to harp on this but it will continue to get
worse unless *we*, the people, get involved with administrators and the
community about wasted light.

Trouble is the general public is afraid of darkness because of crime. Trick
lighting will not overcome the 6 o'clock news.

Jon wrote:

Yes, but people do. Don't mean to harp on this but it will continue
to get worse unless *we*, the people, get involved with
administrators and the community about wasted light.

Trouble is the general public is afraid of darkness because of
crime. Trick lighting will not overcome the 6 o'clock news.

Yes. I don't think it's feasable to expect darkness, but we could
design light fixtures to direct light downwards. There would be a
problem with reflected light, but it's be an improvement. There is
some wastage at parking lots and so on, all lit up when no one is
around.
Imagine a extraterrestrial astronomer looking back at us saying to
herself/himself, "What's with the glowing mercury in Earth's
atmosphere? I can't tell my colleages about that!"

--
Regards
Fred

Remove FFFf to reply, please