Astronomy And Light Pollution

[Phil UK]

A pretty good insight here... http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-12292852

Although the narrator does sound as though he's had a late night after a couple of sherberts.

Phil.

Edited January 31, 2011 by Phil UK

[Osbourne One-Nil]

I hate light pollution. it is absolutely and completely unnecessary and one of those things that actually saves money when prevented.

The night sky here is about as dark as you can get in England, yet even I have to take my telescope out of the village to get away from streetlights as this village has more pet head than anywhere in the world. Luckily I don't have to go far, which is why I've just bought myself one of these...a 10" scope which packs away within minutes to a box measuring 15" x 12" x 5" and weighs less than 9kg. Sorted.

[Rustynailer]

All this light going up into space is wasted energy. Give it 10 years or so and we will have energy police the rate things are moving. lol

One thing is for certain now IMO, in a recession/depression or whatever it is called, we who want the light pollution to stop stand a much better chance of success by telling everybody "how wasteful it is" and how "we are all paying for it", etc. Love it. In the boom time nobody listens.

Complain of this vast waste to the council and MPs. Tell everybody. Tell them again and again. Better shades smaller bulbs smaller bills. (BSSBSB. Sounds like an old public information film, Lol) We can turn off some lights after 12 too, some but not all.

Russ

[Crepuscular Ray]

Try living in central London next door to a Travis Perkins that only turns its floodlights off on Saturday and Sunday evenings. That said, given the increased cloud cover (for whatever cause although many seem to think that it's to do with areoplane contrails) over the last few years, the numbers of stars I can see has decreased horrendously. In 1996/7, I saw comet Hale-Bopp from the urban hell that is South Kensington; these days, I suspect I'd be hard pushed to see a supernova within a couple of million light years.

[Summer of 95]

I'm quite lucky here I suppose compared to those in the southeast for instance; there's some pretty dark spots only 10-20 miles away and even here isn't too bad. I wish there were less of those wretched security lights that come on when a cat walks past though.

As for that article- well I can certainly see all the main stars of Orion plus the nebula without any problems; though I've never, ever been able to see more than 6 Pleiades without binoculars even from dark places.

[Interitus]

I hate light pollution. it is absolutely and completely unnecessary and one of those things that actually saves money when prevented.

The night sky here is about as dark as you can get in England, yet even I have to take my telescope out of the village to get away from streetlights as this village has more pet head than anywhere in the world. Luckily I don't have to go far, which is why I've just bought myself one of these...a 10" scope which packs away within minutes to a box measuring 15" x 12" x 5" and weighs less than 9kg. Sorted.

At first I thought it was a mistake leaving the village but with that telescope you can still see them but they can't see you, and it packs easily for a quick getaway, good thinking!

[Phil UK]

I hate light pollution. it is absolutely and completely unnecessary and one of those things that actually saves money when prevented.

The night sky here is about as dark as you can get in England, yet even I have to take my telescope out of the village to get away from streetlights as this village has more pet head than anywhere in the world. Luckily I don't have to go far, which is why I've just bought myself one of these...a 10" scope which packs away within minutes to a box measuring 15" x 12" x 5" and weighs less than 9kg. Sorted.

Not a bad bit of kit, OON.

As much as I'd love to invest in some decent equipment as regarding astronomy, where I live would be completely defeating the issue with such light pollution.

Even if every streetlamp was switched off, the security lights are so numerous that when you walk outside, it feels like you've walked onto a large stage when they all switch on almost simultaneously.

Can't win, I don't drive and the nearest 'dark spot' (if you can call it that!) is about 7 miles away just outside of Coleshill.

Phil.

[Interitus]

I'm surprised it's much of a problem for OON to be honest. The difference in the night sky between here in north Cheshire with the glow from the urban areas of Manchester, Liverpool and all the towns inbetween, and from visits to Cumbria is astounding. Down here it can be a challenge to make out constellations apart from on the clearest nights, and the general swathe of the Milky Way can't be seen at all.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

It's not that the streetlights particularly reduce the sky's darkness, but their presence prevents your eyes from getting properly dark-adapted as they're in direct view during the winter.

[Terminal Moraine]

I used to think I could see a lot of stars on a clear night here until I saw t.v pictures of the quite phenomenal number visible in the sky from somewhere really dark; central Mongolia for example.

It made me realise that, due to the distant glow from Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield etc, it's only really dark here when it's foggy, which is quite frequently, but not much use for observing the stars.

[Snowyowl9]

You can tell how much light pollution is when theres high cloud about,cirrostratus or even mid level cloud further east then,over to the east from here,shows up pretty badly.

If theres no high traces of high cloud it doesn`t show up much at all,it all faces away from the eastern/NE half where situated here,as you go up then the glows appear.

Low cloud shows the closest towns orange lights west but on a much fainter scale.

Great view of the milkyway last night the first clear night for 10 days shocking.

There are around 5800 stars on a celestial sphere visible to the naked eye.

[VillagePlank]

Light pollution is one of my pet hates. I have children who have yet to see the milky way

The argument put across, I suppose, is that lit streets help the crime-rate, or perhaps, the accident rate - I do not know if there's any quantitative evidence behind such reasoning - I have yet to find any studies.

The only people I have come across who seem sensible (read: they are not militant eco-nasties) are the Campaign to Protect Rural England, who have a campaign against light pollution, here. They have succeeded somewhat since they campaigned hard to make nuisance lighting a statutory nuisance, which, I believe, is now on the statute books.

Want to see how bad your area is? See, here.

[Bottesford]

Very significant light pollution here in my city centre location blocking out all but the brightest objects really.

Saying that the immediate light pollution on my & nearby streets us very low as the gas lights we have put out very little light compared to modern electrical lighting (and definitely a lot less harsh on the eyes - no high frequency flicker) but the surrounding glow outside this area certainly makes up for it!

I think street lighting technology has helped in some cases with light pollution as I remember that many lamps would fire light in all directions so alot of light just went straight up into space. Now lamps are more focused on the ground with a lot less upward loss.

A lot of street lights around the city side streets have been replaced in the last few months with the orange sodium lamps (fixed to original gas columns) going in favour of blinding bright, but more directional modern lamps on new columns. This means less light going upwards but since the lamps are so very very much brighter I'm wondering if it helps light pollution at all. Energy efficiency is probably the main reason for the replacements.

[Crepuscular Ray]

There's also the Campaign for Dark Skies run by the British Astronomical Association.

http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/

Some of their claims, e.g. about lighting at night causing cancer, seem to be going a bit far, but certainly I agree with them about the energy wastage.

[Polar Maritime]

On a clear night the Milky Way looks fantastic from my location, especially since my girlfriend got me a spotting scope for christmas but you can still see faint street light pollution on the horizon from Manchester and Derby. Ive found that the new white L.E.D lights give off far less light pollution if any at all, and cost far less to run. If i had it my way there would`nt be half the street lights there are now, I think most are unnecerssery.

[frogesque]

One of my pet hates are the badly sited insecurity lights that blind anyone within 500m.

Why light up you back garden so that any would-be intruders can better see what they are doing?