291 replies to this topic

[Matthew Schramm]

Shout out to all my people living in Illinois, where Light Pollution is dreadful

Edited by Matthew Schramm, 16 January 2019 - 10:48 PM.

[Astroman007]

Shout out to all my people living in Illinois, where Light Pollution is dreadful

Everywhere in the state?

[PXR-5]

LP is going to just get worse in most places.
Sadly it's we, that have to adjust to it

That will mean, driving or moving farther or changing our viewing habits.

I have spent most of my time with DSOs, but I may learn to enjoy the Moon more, it does offer lots of details with any size scope anywhere on the planet

[Kendahl]

LP is going to just get worse in most places. Sadly it's we, that have to adjust to it. That will mean, driving or moving farther or changing our viewing habits.

Horace Greeley had the best advice, "Go west." If you look at a light pollution map of the lower forty eight states, it becomes obvious that the country is divided almost equally into a bright half (eastern) and a dark half (western with the exception of the coast and a few cities.) Unless you can't conceive of living in a city with a population less than a million, there are many choices out west. If you include the surrounding suburbs, Omaha has nearly a million yet Bortle 3 and 4 skies are only an hour away. The only real problem with the midwest is too many cloudy days. The solution for that is moving to the southwest. (Seeing Sunday's eclipse required a last minute trip to southern Texas.)

[gomezdb]

Passionate about deep sky astrophotography but:

 

1. I live in a city (Calgary, Canada) where the annual percentage of cloudy nights is higher than 60%

2. I live in a location (latitud) where I cannot do astrophotography during summer season (there is astronomical darkness)

3. Not being able to shoot from my backyard due to intensive/direct light pollution.

3. Too much going on at work and at home

 

Clear skies,

Diego

[PXR-5]

I will become a lunatic

[earlyriser]

Passionate about deep sky astrophotography but:

 

1. I live in a city (Calgary, Canada) where the annual percentage of cloudy nights is higher than 60%

2. I live in a location (latitud) where I cannot do astrophotography during summer season (there is astronomical darkness)

3. Not being able to shoot from my backyard due to intensive/direct light pollution.

3. Too much going on at work and at home

 

Clear skies,

Diego

Someday, we'll all be retired and living in a rural part of Arizona. 

[Astroman007]

Someday, we'll all be retired and living in a rural part of Arizona. 

I hope!

[Asbytec]

It would be nice to have an astronomical retirement community, or at least a retreat we can spend a few months where there is no pain. Kind of like living on a golf course. 

Edited by Asbytec, 25 January 2019 - 05:18 AM.

[gomezdb]

Someday, we'll all be retired and living in a rural part of Arizona. 

That's my plan although my wife already has different ones... 

[Jake21]

These have been replacing the warm unshielded lights in my neighborhood. It is all so baffling to me... Once again, little to no shielding but this time its LED. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Jake21, 12 February 2019 - 12:32 PM.

[Astroman007]

^ Ouch.

 

Still too bright.

[StarBurger]

We used to have a low pressure sodium illuminating the back stairs to our communal apartment block.I could observe quite happily from the back lot. It failed often, to my greater delight and for several years no one repaired it.

Now the landlord has installed a LED to replace it. I know it is no use complaining because other residents really do appreciate negotiable stairs and the security aspect, even my wife! Yep you can't fight city hall or the wife.

I await improvement as the spiders weave their webs across the LED (better for enticing prey) and leaves to become netted on them.

For the first time in my life I am hoping electricians have done a lousy job and have NOT done  good work with the waterproof grommet/gland thingies.

I have also considered the spray can black paint option but I know it won't be a case of "who dunnit ? ". They will know who "dunnit"......

[George N]

That's my plan although my wife already has different ones... 

People = lights

Dark sky = few people, or great poverty (Puerto Rico anyone??)

 

Guess why they are not there??!! Because dark places with few lights are places that are difficult or uncomfortable to live, and travel can be difficult - and health care is "little to none".

 

I live about 6 to 8 weeks per year in NY's Adirondacks (plus another week or so at Cherry Springs in PA) -- SQM readings of 21.7 or darker -- but in a county continuing to decline in population, surrounded by the same - not a single drug store or doctor's office in the entire county - 90 minute drive on a good day to a hospital (or even worse for my wife - to a Walmart ) - helo's not allowed to land.... forget 'the golden hour' - you ain't gonna get it here (that's in summer - winter can be like pioneer times). But it is dark - and with fewer people it will be getting darker.

 

There are dark pockets in the east - and getting darker as upstate NY and inland New England continue to experience population decline. But as others have mentioned - weather and 'seeing' are also concerns. As I write this - the skies would be dark here -- if the snow would stop - but the temp would then be around zero...

Arizona? A place with a rapid rate of population and LP increase, with large cities, etc -- not to mention declining water supply and summer temps well over 100 F - and at least until all the western forests burn down - smoke.  (plus scorpions -- but that's my personal issue    )

 

[earlyriser]

It's been awhile since I posted some pictures here. These photos are of the Citadel Self Storage facility, which just opened in the past few months, and is a significant new source of light pollution.

 

Below is a view of the front. Public storage facilities often use wall pack lights. I believe this may be because they are visible from a great distance, and thus draw the attention of potential customers as they drive by. Unfortunately, wall packs are enormous sources of light pollution due to the excessive amount of up-light they emit. Here, there are two large wall packs on the side of the main building and five more visible on the storage sheds to the right. 

 

 

What caught my attention initially were the two lower pole mounted lights on the left, which are aimed horizontally to illuminate the front of the building. They are quite prominent when driving past the facility. From this angle, you can see two of three additional wall pack lights on the north side of the main building and four additional wall packs above the storage sheds. This type of light is an source of excessive glare no matter how it is installed.

 

 

 

The outdoor accessible storage area is highly over-lit. I count ten wall packs mounted to the storage sheds and two more on this side of the main building. Another light mounted on a pole to the right provides additional illumination. The wall packs may be effective at drawing attention to the facility from a distance, but only a fraction of the light they put out is illuminating the area around the storage sheds.

 

Edited by earlyriser, 13 February 2019 - 05:48 PM.

[Astroman007]

^ What a depressing sight.

 

I feel your pain and understand your frustration, earlyriser.

[kksmith]

Living in a city where the area population is about 2.2 million people and complaining about light pollution is like living in North Dakota and complaining about frigid winters and blizzards. I lived there -  I know about frigid.  LP in the Greater Cincinnati Area is a given - I have also lived there. Where you choose to live is a choice. I like trout, mountains, sparce population, and dark skies so I chose Montana.

 

Instead of going "lawyer" on people - get an EMP generator. 

 

Ken

[earlyriser]

Living in a city where the area population is about 2.2 million people and complaining about light pollution is like living in North Dakota and complaining about frigid winters and blizzards. I lived there -  I know about frigid.  LP in the Greater Cincinnati Area is a given - I have also lived there. Where you choose to live is a choice. I like trout, mountains, sparce population, and dark skies so I chose Montana.

 

Instead of going "lawyer" on people - get an EMP generator. 

 

Ken

Frigid winters and blizzards are natural phenomena. In contrast, pollution is man-made. I believe problems created by man can be solved by man.

 

Just because living in a city means more air, light, and noise pollution than living in Montana doesn't mean we should just accept any level of these pollutants that someone who is not bothered by it thinks is acceptable. I'm a resident here just like everyone else, and I will continue to try and move the city in a direction that I believe will improve the environment for myself and those around me. Cincinnati used to be full of soot and smoke from all the coal fired boilers around town. Somehow, we managed to clean that up without destroying city life. No reason we can't reduce light pollution as well. 

[RyanSem]

Business across the street renovated their sign today. Went from a bright blue lettered sign to a gigantic LED flashing one. 

 

5 more months at this address is the only thing that keeps me going..

[clearwaterdave]

You choose where you live.,if you think 200 astronomers are going to convince 2 million other residents that the lighting is a problem.,lol.,Don't get me wrong.,the last thing I want is a bunch of city slickers moving up into the country.,people=problems.,and it wouldn't be the country anymore would it.,

  I would much rather be farther from the hospital and other city convinences than to have people living on all sides of me within throwing distance.,I get the willies just thinking about living in an apartment or neighborhood.,ymmv and that's ok by me.,

  Here's the view from my yard.,

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[jim kuhns]

You are right clearwater  about convincing others about light pollution.  I lived on a farm in southwest Missouri not far from the Kansas border in the early 70's. At that time the nearest neighbor was over a mile

away. Dark open skies on the prairies and wonder starry nights.

Now I live in southeast Georgia where it is getting harder to find descent dark skies.     

Edited by jim kuhns, 26 February 2019 - 06:09 PM.

[PXR-5]

No longer light polluted here, 19 of the last 22 weekends it has rained and the other 4 were cloudy, so I don't notice LP.

[Astroman007]

I noticed (a few cloudy nights back) a much worsened LP both towards town (SE, which was always there, but pinkish and much less intense) and...this is the new part...a band of LP stretching from there well to the ESE, low along the horizon. All a dull greenish-bluish-yellowish color.

For the life of me I can't figure out the source of the increased glow. There is nothing but bush out there, AFAIK. The change of color may be explained by the town perhaps changing out its streetlight bulbs, but the rest?

The good news is that much is only visible under cloudy skies, not seriously impacting astronomical pursuits.

[rekokich]

http://kurtriegel.co...ion_Science.pdf

 

https://www.chicagom...ghts-Should-Be/

[vdog]

Well, they finally got around to replacing that dim orange streetlight that used to shine over the fence and into my face with a much brighter LED light that now shines over the fence and into my face.

 

That's progress for ya!

Edited by vdog, 18 March 2019 - 08:52 PM.