291 replies to this topic

[PhotogTom]

That's crazy, the amount of light that one store can have. That's the definition of light pollution there. 

[earlyriser]

That's crazy, the amount of light that one store can have. That's the definition of light pollution there. 

This is my main concern with LED lighting. There seems to be almost no upper limit on how bright they can be.  Even if lights are well shielded, if they are pouring out daylight levels of light on the ground, especially light with significant blue content, there is going to be a lot of uplight scattered off the pavement that contributes to sky glow. 

Edited by earlyriser, 02 February 2023 - 04:35 PM.

[darthteddy93]

My biggest pain here is just the sheer amount of light pollution. It is not going anywhere anytime soon unless there's a massive power outage over all of southern CA. 

[csrlice12]

Lights should point down, not out.  We should also cover all parking lots with nanoblack coatings.

[wavefront]

Since light pollution has a relationship to cancer maybe we should contact all of the major institutes that deal with this illness.

Here are some:

 

https://missionsearc...states-in-2022/

 

https://www.dana-farber.org/

.................................................................................................................

https://www.darksky....nd-cancer-risk/

 

It might be quite possible that properly shielded light would be good for covid patients as well. It's the melatonin thing. You can

buy it as a supplement, but I doubt it's as good as what your body makes naturally.

Edited by wavefront, 06 February 2023 - 02:44 PM.

[csa/montana]

This is my main concern with LED lighting. There seems to be almost no upper limit on how bright they can be.  Even if lights are well shielded, if they are pouring out daylight levels of light on the ground, especially light with significant blue content, there is going to be a lot of uplight scattered off the pavement that contributes to sky glow. 

Wow!  It even hurts one's eyes to see the lighting in your photos!  That is so extremely excessive!

[Nankins]

We have people about a mile away who built a big house about two years ago or so and the lights they put on it I think are LEDs.  They are extremely bright and obviously spill into the sky pretty bad.  If light pollution from Lafayette was not bad already, this excessive lighting would really mess things up.  But its not actually noticeable, in part due to living with plenty of trees between home and there.  But driving past the place at night, although its set back from the road, is annoying.  They live in the country and don't really need them.  They are the brightest house around until you reach the nearest city, which is a 30 minute drive.

 

And Lafayette's Purdue University campus is adding the world's largest wind tunnel, plus a new airport.  Both of these are going up in a slightly rural area just off campus and will seriously have some bright lights.  I expect the light pollution from them alone to brighten the sky even more visibly where I live. 

[wavefront]

Since light pollution has a relationship to cancer maybe we should contact all of the major institutes that deal with this illness.

Here are some:

 

https://missionsearc...states-in-2022/

 

https://www.dana-farber.org/

.................................................................................................................

https://www.darksky....nd-cancer-risk/

 

It might be quite possible that properly shielded light would be good for covid patients as well. It's the melatonin thing. You can

buy it as a supplement, but I doubt it's as good as what your body makes naturally.

Did anyone follow up on this ?

Edited by wavefront, 06 February 2023 - 02:46 PM.

[wavefront]

I'm wondering if it would be possible to use yellow LEDs in parking lots or security lights. I guess it would depend on their spectral qualities.

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[IsabellaSL]

This is my main concern with LED lighting. There seems to be almost no upper limit on how bright they can be.  Even if lights are well shielded, if they are pouring out daylight levels of light on the ground, especially light with significant blue content, there is going to be a lot of uplight scattered off the pavement that contributes to sky glow. 

Unfortunately this is a common problem. I don't think there will be an alternative to LED signs in the near future.

[PeteDavidsonTheFirst]

Right now, our neighborhood has suffered a power outage. For the first time in months my neighbors' security lights are not shining down on my back yard. And it is a clear night.

But... the moon is full!

[John Fitzgerald]

Right now, our neighborhood has suffered a power outage. For the first time in months my neighbors' security lights are not shining down on my back yard. And it is a clear night.

But... the moon is full!

Arrrgh!

[CharLakeAstro]

Perhaps aproach corporate BP instead of local franchisees.

An approach that speaks to their corporate image might be fruitful... carbon, etc. Most oil companies currently have campaigns and budgets for looking greener.

[earlyriser]

Here is a textbook example of "light over there with a light over here."  The owner has placed 18 lights on one side of the lot, and pointed them toward the other side, which is next to the access road and about 300 feet away.  I saw this from the highway adjacent to the illuminated end of the lot one night coming back from a dark sky site. 

 

Daytime view

 

 

View from the entrance to the lot. 

 

 

View from the side.

 

 

The area next to the lights is highly illuminated - I measured 175 lux.  But the light diffuses quickly, dropping to about 10 lux (horizontal) at the far side.  

 

Edited by earlyriser, 06 February 2024 - 01:56 PM.

[wavefront]

Here's a light my neighbor has turned on every night. I argued with him about his outdoor lighting and this very narcissistic weirdo put up more. The county I'm in has very poor outdoor lighting regs. 

Lights are about 400 feet away

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Edited by wavefront, 06 February 2024 - 04:05 PM.

[John Fitzgerald]

My 48 feet long,10 feet high, light shield broke off and toppled over in a windstorm a few weeks ago.  It had been up a few years.  I used some of the leftover lumber and fabric from it to build a 6 foot wide, 7 foot high portable shield on wheels.  The neighboring business has taken down or enclosed all but two of the offending LED wall packs in the last few months. My shield will work for those two wall packs.

[marvyyk]

Modern street lights...

 

Our house is at the end of the street... what have 3 street lights... A couple years ago the replace the old yellow sodium lamps by led one... ouch...

 

The led are 3x more powerfull... and blue-ish...

 

light pollution filters are less effective... 

at night in my backyard I can see that the grass is green... 

 

I called the city to ask if they can take off one of the three street lamps and they laught... 

 

Edited by marvyyk, 10 February 2024 - 06:51 PM.

[Nankins]

I live in a rural location, BUT... next door neighbors installed an LED or two and they aren't shielded. Fortunately the light(s) are only on when she's still not home and when someone is outside (which is most nights). These lights are behind their garage in an area that is always dark enough most people genuinely would think they need a light to see, and we have trees and a wooden fence up along the property line. Now, the problem. These lights have pretty bad light trespass, no shields. When those lights are on at night about half the light goes into the woods where it isn't needed (they don't own the woods). It's as bright as the headlights on one of their vehicles. These people also have no clue that I'm out there near that side of the property with a telescope sometimes (and I will never let them find that out because well, a few of them at least don't mind being on the wrong side of the law). In fact the guys living there now are friends of the couple and "keeping an eye" on things while crazy guy's in prison. We and some of the other neighbors have a no contact order against the couple, so it's not like anyone can just go talk to them either. Honestly kinda annoying but since they don't know what I like to do out there at night I don't put it past them at all. Should also add that this neighbor is to the east so other than lighting up the woods for 1/8 mile and taking away some of my night vision all it does is add very minimally to the light pollution coming from the city. Pretty interesting. Little affect on the light pollution skyward, but wow, lights up the woods like daylight. I don't think these lights are shielded but one for sure is on the garage itself above their side door and gets slightly shielded by the roof. And like I said, can't talk with these people either.

[Nankins]

And should I say anything about the million dollar home that somebody built a few years ago and they installed about a few dozen LEDs that are too blue and unshielded and too bright? This house is about 1 1/2 miles from home. And they certainly would appear as a large bright spot in the eastern sky if there weren't trees in the way.

Oh, and also the neighbor across the street has a security light in their front yard that's been there since before I was born, and so although we don't really care too much about it it does make front yard observing hard because more than half of it's light trespasses and lights stuff up for about 1/16 of a mile around them. It's not shielded either. I make this point because out of all the houses on the lane, they are the only ones I know of who have had issues with suspicious people and vehicles at night. Outside of their issues with crazy guy. I'm not sure about the house at the entrance to the neighborhood, as although they have security lights they are already a drug house, but so far those of us without security lights haven't had problems with people who weren't supposed to be in the neighborhood.

[CrazyPanda]

I argued with him about his outdoor lighting and this very narcissistic weirdo put up more.

 

This is the type of freak whose response to someone driving a Prius is to drive farther in their Ford F350 out of spite.

Edited by CrazyPanda, 18 February 2024 - 08:42 PM.

[wavefront]

Narcissistic seems to be a key word anymore. YouTube has a lot of info about it. Narcissistic people are not only vengeful, they are persistently vengeful. I have one next to me 

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Edited by wavefront, 19 February 2024 - 12:16 PM.

[Astroman007]

Here's a light my neighbor has turned on every night. I argued with him about his outdoor lighting and this very narcissistic weirdo put up more. The county I'm in has very poor outdoor lighting regs. 

Lights are about 400 feet away

What possible use could that serve? Is he running a maximum security prison?

[CrazyPanda]

What possible use could that serve? Is he running a maximum security prison?

I'm not sure if that photo posted by wavefront is actually his neighbor, but if he really does have a confederate flag on his property, that conjurs imagery of all kinds of personality traits, a couple of which explain the "reasoning" going on here:

 

1. Probably thinks crime is rampant and that home invasions are right around the corner, so thinks he needs lighting for security.

2. Probably the "rugged individual" type that in actuality has a fragile ego, which in turn is propped up by the belief that they have the right to do whatever they want no matter how it affects others. Any request to make a change is interpreted as an attack on their entire world view and the selfish little identity they've created for themselves. This in turn causes them to double down (this is a well observed and documented phenomenon).

Edited by CrazyPanda, 11 April 2024 - 01:56 PM.

[John Fitzgerald]

There are a number of confederate flags I have observed in the back country of the Ozarks.  I don't recall seeing much, if any, yard lighting at any of them.  More of an anti soliciting (strangers beware) symbol than anything else, I think.

[Johnmiod]

Mmmmm, If the government could figure out how to tax light our troubles may be solved.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earth - Always net carbon zero, except for the  occasional asteroid impact.