Revenge of the Street Lamps!

[Ylem]

Ugh, when we moved to this neighborhood just over a year ago the street lamps were on motion detection.
It was relatively dark here considering it's proximity to the ocean and tourist destinations.

No more, the residents complained it was too dark to even walk a dog at night, so, the lights are now on sunset to sunrise!

No more DSOs for me, just Lunar and planetary now
I can walk a few blocks to a clearing in the woods, but it's still pretty bad there now.

My club has a few dark sites available, but I consider myself a "pajama" observer and prefer to observe at home.

Ugh...

[Bigzmey]

Most unfortunate. That what happened to me a few years ago. I was able to observe DSOs from our patio, but eventually was forced to start driving to the desert.

[pakarinen]

That sucks.

[StarHugger]

My neighbor has one with a giant globe on it that makes that one look tiny, its in his drive 70 feet from my home...

Sucks indeed.

[gregl]

I live in a rural area with many 2 1/2 acre lots, a 160 acre almond orchard across the road and a 35-acre empty field behind my property. The guy across the field, about four tenths of a mile away, put up an LED floodlight that is so bright it lights up the inside of my house. I went to talk to him and offered to pay a professional to put a flap on it so it wouldn't light my property but would give him what he wants; all subject to his approval. He was not nice about it and, uh, strongly said no. We planted some bushes along the back fence, at a cost of about $500, and after a couple of years of growth they have blocked the light.

Around the corner about a mile and a half down there is one place that is lit up all around the house like a prison yard. Fortunately it's far from me.

What these paranoid morons don't understand is that we are far from the city and the bad guys don't come out here at night. Every incident that's happened — all of which have been minor — has been during the day.

[Ylem]

I live in a rural area with many 2 1/2 acre lots, a 160 acre almond orchard across the road and a 35-acre empty field behind my property. The guy across the field, about four tenths of a mile away, put up an LED floodlight that is so bright it lights up the inside of my house. I went to talk to him and offered to pay a professional to put a flap on it so it wouldn't light my property but would give him what he wants; all subject to his approval. He was not nice about it and, uh, strongly said no. We planted some bushes along the back fence, at a cost of about $500, and after a couple of years of growth they have blocked the light.

Around the corner about a mile and a half down there is one place that is lit up all around the house like a prison yard. Fortunately it's far from me.

What these paranoid morons don't understand is that we are far from the city and the bad guys don't come out here at night. Every incident that's happened — all of which have been minor — has been during the day.

Ugh, sounds like where I lived in NC, everyone had those yard lights on poles. Another guy had a weird hobby of restoring antique search lights, actually kind of a cool hobby, but my property got the brunt of his "testing".

Where I am now I can drive about 15 minutes to a dark area, but I really like to observe in my PJs

[Lady Fraktor]

Sorry to hear about the light issues.
Check out foreverlazy.com

[Juno16]

That really stinks Jeff!

I know how you feel. You could switch gears and go with one of the new eaa scopes (like a Seestar) or toy around with AP.
I pretty much ran out of viewable dso's years ago with my little 5" newt and tried AP just to really get a better idea what dso's look like. I know though, that fiddling with AP isn't everyone's cup of tea, but even on a basic level you will be amazed at what you can catch with a camera.

Best of success whichever direction you go!

[Ylem]

That really stinks Jeff!

I know how you feel. You could switch gears and go with one of the new eaa scopes (like a Seestar) or toy around with AP.
I pretty much ran out of viewable dso's years ago with my little 5" newt and tried AP just to really get a better idea what dso's look like. I know though, that fiddling with AP isn't everyone's cup of tea, but even on a basic level you will be amazed at what you can catch with a camera.

Best of success whichever direction you go!

I don't have room here at the new house for a darkroom LOL

Seriously, I used to do film, I did try some simple Moon shots with an El cheapo Orion camera a few years back and it didn't go so well.

It's always a possibility, I'm amazed at all the images you folks post here

[Richard]

I know what that feels like ,my country RSA has gone thru a power crisis and everyone has installed lots of solar panels that run led lights , now the power is restored and the municipality have added more led light , great for crime but not us I dont even bother to look at home
We sold our game farm so now have no where to go for dark sky , I have not looked for a whole year , just looked at what others have posted as I got tired of the moon and a few planets

[Mike Q]

The grain elevator 500 yards down the road from me added some security lighting a couple of years ago. It is highly annoying. I contacted them explaining that the lights were easily visible from my observation area, i never heard a word back from them. I ended up making a light blocking wall out of wood and lattice. Honeysuckle now covers it and does a fair job of breaking up the light.

[Frankskywatcher]

I live in a rural area with many 2 1/2 acre lots, a 160 acre almond orchard across the road and a 35-acre empty field behind my property. The guy across the field, about four tenths of a mile away, put up an LED floodlight that is so bright it lights up the inside of my house. I went to talk to him and offered to pay a professional to put a flap on it so it wouldn't light my property but would give him what he wants; all subject to his approval. He was not nice about it and, uh, strongly said no. We planted some bushes along the back fence, at a cost of about $500, and after a couple of years of growth they have blocked the light.

Around the corner about a mile and a half down there is one place that is lit up all around the house like a prison yard. Fortunately it's far from me.

What these paranoid morons don't understand is that we are far from the city and the bad guys don't come out here at night. Every incident that's happened — all of which have been minor — has been during the day.

Boy I can relate to that ,same situation here.
I live out in the country on a two-lane road.
I have a guy two houses down from me that has his property lit up like a Christmas
tree.
Like you said there’s hardly any crime where I live and not only that the state I live in everybody and their brother has guns.
There’s not too many breaking and entering crimes in the area and this guy is ex law-enforcement.
He’s got one light that just shines across three houses into my backyard.
I have to roll my scope out of the garage and into the driveway where my house blocks that life it’s ridiculous.

[helicon]

The same thing happened to me around 2017. The city installed a streetlight adjacent to the house. Flooded out the northern sky and made observing on the back deck impossible. I had to retreat to the west facing deck so the house would block the light from the north. Before the light, I could see NGC 3077 in Ursa Major (the satellite of M81) but afterward no more in my Dob.

[gregl]

I think I have reported this here before in a related thread, but some years back I read a book by a guy who wrote that he was a professional burglar. Not a druggie but just someone with his own way of making a living. He wrote that he loved yard lights because he could see what he was doing. And at a dark sky festival I attended a speaker talked about better city lighting and said that these bright lights create shadows in which it is hard to see someone hiding. She advocated soft, low-level, diffused light.

[jrkirkham]

I am sorry to read this. I can also relate to all the other stories like yours that have been shared. My house is at the edge of town. I have a cornfield that borders my property. When I purchased the place I could see the milky way from my backyard. Then a grocery store about three houses away decided to expand its parking lot, add brighter lights, and keep them on all night. After that I could read in my backyard at midnight. I even spoke to our city lawyer about it, but got nowhere. In the end a local farmer who has been a long time friend allowed me to set up my small observatory and warm room on his farm. I will always be grateful to him.

[gregl]

If you really want to get depressed, here are the first two grafs of an article in the Guardian:

"New research claims that exposure to outdoor light at night may increase the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, especially in people under the age of 65.

The researchers who conducted the study, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on Friday, said they have found correlations between areas of the US with excessive exposure to artificial light at night and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... mers-study

And here's a link to the light pollution world map:
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info

[Ylem]

If you really want to get depressed, here are the first two grafs of an article in the Guardian:

"New research claims that exposure to outdoor light at night may increase the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, especially in people under the age of 65.

The researchers who conducted the study, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on Friday, said they have found correlations between areas of the US with excessive exposure to artificial light at night and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... mers-study

And here's a link to the light pollution world map:
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info

Not to mention what all this LP is doing to the wildlife. Last night while out for a nightly stroll with my binos I heard many birds singing in the lower trees .

[BigKahuna]

Jeff, It's worse here in Seaside Heights where I am all summer. I can't image with the light pollution. You know our club (ASTRA) has permission to use our telescopes in Island Beach State Park. The bugs on the barrier island can be a bummer.

October 1st, my wife and I close our motel business for the season and I can finally go to our home where I can look up and see more than 2 stars in the sky.

Look at all the light pollution

[Ylem]

Jeff, It's worse here in Seaside Heights where I am all summer. I can't image with the light pollution. You know our club (ASTRA) has permission to use our telescopes in Island Beach State Park. The bugs on the barrier island can be a bummer.

October 1st, my wife and I close our motel business for the season and I can finally go to our home where I can look up and see more than 2 stars in the sky.

20190824_204330.jpg

Look at all the light pollution

Yes Ron, I need to get to a club function, but the clouds also seem to have those dates marked on their calendars LOL