Author: Mark

Worship musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, cycling, hiking and backpacking the AT and elsewhere, astronomy, star gazing, star stories, love the night sky, Cats and Dobs, student of light, dark sky advocate, lil people, reading, naps now and then.

Prevent LP: Basic Control of Light is Easy

Lighthouse

Intentional Lighting Design requires a designer to move away from the site and view the design from outside the lit area. Designers should be aware of how their lighting design affects the surrounding area. Sadly, this is not often the case. The view is taken from the inside of the lighting design and looks at what is intentionally lit. Unfortunately, this is not the whole picture and designers miss the effects on what they did not intend to light.

If you want to shine light miles out to sea, use a lighthouse. If that is not the design intention then go outside the box and consider what your lights are doing. The view from the inside and the lighting levels will be with accommodated and probably fatigued eyes. Just like audio engineering and wine tasting, sometimes one needs to rest the senses and cleanse the palate. Take a look at the site from the hopefully darker surroundings. If you’ve muddled the whole surrounding area with your light, you’re not done with the design.

Light Pollution is the symptom of muddled lighting design. It wastes energy, harms people and harms the environment. Proper control of light is easy and necessary. Poor engineering has no excuse.

From International Dark Sky Outdoor Lighting Basics:

  1.  Turn lights on only when needed (timers and presence detectors)
  2.  Only light the area that needs it (properly direct the lights)
  3.  No brighter than necessary (adaptive lighting controls like dimmers and resist the temptation to over-light)
  4.  Minimize blue light emissions (3000K or less)
  5.  Use fully shielded fixtures to direct and control the lighting envelope

Additional concerns or ideas:

Understand how other creature’s vision is different than human vision and consider the effect of your lighting design on them. We don’t live here on Earth alone.

In addition to properly using the normal light measurement devices, consider using an SQM to measure the contribution to skyglow your design is producing. If skyglow is increased by your lighting then your choice of shielding is not working or your light is too bright and is reflected upwards.

Confirm that you cannot see the source of your lights from the side, outside the boundaries of your site. If you can, your shielding has missed the requirements. A photon at 60-90 degrees will keep going until it hits something. It could be those houses two miles away, and their porches that people enjoy at night (or used to).

This is easy stuff, right?

Mark

 

 

 

From the mouth of babes

This week we are living some American tradition and spending some time at the beach. With the moon gone, the skies were spectacular the last couple nights. Our home galaxy, The Milky Way, is plainly visible in all of its glory. Through my 10X50 binoculars, looking out over the ocean to the east, the stars are amazing.

Tonight, I got out a couple of beach chairs and handed the binoculars to my oldest granddaughter. The Milky Way, with its dark lane, was clearly visible from the horizon, steaming out of the Teapot asterism, rising across the night sky and back over our heads. I showed her where to aim the binoculars and she emphatically said, “Wow! That’s beautiful! She then asked to find some other constellations, viewed Jupiter, and all by herself found Ptolomy’s Cluster.

Again, I’d like to point out the sad state of lighting design and how light pollution steals this amazing source of inspiration and resource from our children. It’s not right. It’s sheer stupidity on the part of professional lighting. The fix is easy, the technology and mechanics is within our grasp, so what’s the big problem?

Today, I read an article from Science Direct. In the US, the sky due to light pollution is 200,000 times brighter than the darkest spot in the US. Washington, D.C. owns the top of the charts for the worst light pollution in the US. That’s TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND times brighter than the darkest place in the US!

Sorry folks, that’s totally ridiculous. I’d like for my grandkids to go out at night, sit in their yard and be amazed and mesmerized by the night sky. I want to hear them say, “Wow! That’s beautiful.” I’d like all kids to have that wonderful experience and become curious about it all.

Problem is, big folks think they need to see like it’s day, at night. They don’t.

Stealing STEM from our kids

Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.05 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.05 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.04 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap
Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.06 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap. Long Exposure mode, 1.78 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap
Taken with NightCap. Star Trails mode, 51.39 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap. Star Trails mode, 6.21 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.
Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.05 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

 

The last two nights were beautiful out.  The telescope came out to play with the night sky.  Cool low to the horizon, or should I say everything below 45 degrees was washed out badly from the warehouse complex lighting.  Still there were some nice sights to see.  I stayed up ALMOST all night.

Globe at Night  , is a crazy cool STEM site for kids and families to do some great citizen science.  By actually doing science, you can learn a lot.  Hands on is important.

When I was a kid, the night sky with the moon and planets was inspirational to me.  My view of the night sky led me to imagine space travel and fall in love with all kinds of sciences.  It was the beginning of the space age and I followed the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and all the sciences they pointed to.  In those days, there was no Internet so the evening news with Walter Cronkite or special broadcasts, like the Christmas Eve from the Moon, the first spacewalks, all the launches,  and the first Moon landing.  I hung on every bit of information I could get in news, magazines and in books.

For me the night sky was full of adventure and promise, a way I could be a part of and touch the exciting happenings of the day.  I learned the constellations, star’s names, places on the Moon, the planets and I could actually see the Milky Way from my suburban backyard.  Mom and Dad bought me a small telescope and I would spend hours in the backyard, looking at the Moon and stars.

This was at a young age.  The first two books I remember were about the Moon, the solar system, rockets and space travel.  I learned how to read with those two books!

My love for science and technology was born out of my love for the night sky.  I never got to be an astronaut or a professional astronomer but it propelled me into a career in IT hardware, software, electronics, music, along with wonderful, enlightening hobbies in astronomy, computer geeky stuff, electronics, and more.

From the night sky and what it drew me to, I learned critical thinking skills, developed a love for lifelong learning, patience, love for reading, a love for discovery, a love for nature’s beauty, a love for physics, cosmology, science, a love for knowing about things, a heathy curiousity, an ability to connect seemingly unconnected information, patient sleuthing, and perseverance.

Most of all, I love to see the curiousity and fascination for a beautiful Creation aroused in my grandkids.  I love to see them be excited to see Saturn’s rings, Jupiter and it’s moons, our Moon, galaxies and star clusters.  I love to see them drawn into the dance and to be inspired to express it all in their own way and in their becoming.  I love to think of them passing this excitement on to their children!

The night sky is the best STEM resource a kid could have, and it’s free!  You want your kids to be interested in science, nature, conservation, technology, music and the arts, world cultures, and so much more?

At odds with this great free resource to inspire and think and matters of faith, is irresponsible outdoor lighting.  Light does not need to be directed up and outwards so that it blinds people and obscures the night sky.  Being piggish about outdoor lighting wastes energy and resource, and is of no value to anyone, including those responsible.  Worse yet, such companies and institutions are stealing something precious from my grandkids.  The companies, institutions, municipalities, developers and designers who light irresponsibly are STEALING this great, free STEM resource from all people.  Worse yet, our institutions of learning are some of the worst offenders.  These are especially the people that should know better.

Irresponsible outdoor lighting is robbing us blind.  The people responsible are robbing this new generation of a beautiful inspiration to learn and express.  That stinks bigtime.

Mark

 

 

 

Warehousing’s Phototoxicity

IMG_3128

Warehousing is phototoxic to residential areas

Sorry for the strong article.  It is just the truth of the matter.  Sometimes you just can’t dress up a pig…   (Well, maybe you could if it was Arnold Ziffle)

This is pretty much our view every night.  At bedtime, we draw our blinds and shut drapes because of light from Allen Distribution’s 114 warehouse complex.  Allen Distribution’s lighting makes it difficult to get to sleep and to stay asleep.  Their lights illuminate the back of our house from almost a mile away.  These lights are on at this intensity all night long, year round, even though there is no truck traffic and very few people at the site.  The worst of the skyglow is coming from lighting on the streets leading into the complex where the lux readings are over 20 times the recommended intensity for roadway lighting.  The roadway luminaires are incredibly bright and throw glare to all sides, including into residential areas.

Allen Distribution’s lights have destroyed the enjoyment and use of our backyard deck and patio at night.  There is literally no night sky, just their hideous lights blazing up into the sky.  The luminosity of the sky measures between 50 and 75 times the brightness it should be (Allen Distribution is just one of the co-conspiritors in this mess).

In repeated communications with Bradley Haines, at Allen Distribution, he first suggested it was the pipeline work in the area, then reflection off of snow, and then he stopped communicating.  So here we are in June, there is no snow, just their ugly lights still causing our backyard to be unusable at night.

Does bad lighting and light pollution really matter that much?  Read my previous post and follow the link to the April 2019 ANSES report.  Bad lighting is phototoxic.  Warehousing with bad lighting is phototoxic to the surrounding communities and people, not to mention the environment.

A word to planners: Warehousing and people’s homes do not mix.  

A lot of warehousing expansion is occurring along the Rt 81 corridor, impacting both rural areas and residential areas.  While people like getting their packages the next day and municipalities salivate over the increases the tax base, it is not worth the cost to the community.  To be blunt, warehousing and residential areas do not mix.  Warehousing is not interested in the environment or the health of the people that live around their warehouse facilities.

Lighting is one major way warehousing degrades a community’s environmental space.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Lighting can be done right.  It just seems warehousing doesn’t know how to do that or doesn’t really care to do lighting properly.  And that is just a sign of how warehousing operates overall, with regards to human health and the environment.  No matter what warehousing says about their care of the environment and people, their actions and facilities speak a louder message.

I hoped the conversation between Bradley Haines and myself could yield benefits for both Allen Distribution and our residential area.   That doesn’t seem to be how the experience is working out.  Allen Distribution’s lighting has serious safety risks to their employees and residents of the surrounding area.  Allen Distribution is wasteful with their energy use and Allen Distribution is a major source of light pollution to the surrounding communities.  We might as well have a coal plant in our backyard belching toxic smoke into the air.

Now, Mechanicsburg is developing the land next to the Allen Distribution Warehouse Complex.  The development is called Legacy Park.  I can’t even imagine purchasing a home in that neighborhood considering the health effects Allen Distibution’s lights would have on my family’s health.  It’s bad enough from almost a mile away.  It would be phototoxic to live right next to Allen Distribution and their warehouses.  That’s not the kind of Legacy I would choose for my family.

The Municipal Ordinance Problem

Municipalities do not understand the problem or take it seriously.  They get caught with their ordinances sorely lacking and unable to protect their people from the onslaught of round the clock warehouse lighting at ridiculous levels.  This is especially true in rural areas.  While I did have a good conversation with Upper Allen Township, their ordinances (or lack of) are of little use.  Developers and warehousing take advantage of this.  Residents just have to suffer through it, I guess.  It’s not the way it should be.

Mark

 

 

 

 

A Philips Hue Upgrade – Outside Lights for Your Home

I found a nice solution for upgrading our home’s outside lighting.  I purchased a Hue Outside Motion Detector and a pair of Hue Ambient White lights.

I set the lights to the warmest tempeture, 2200K, set them fairly dim, and have a Hue routine running that turns them on and off at the appropriate times of day.

The sensor routine is set to brighten the lights slightly and raise the CCT a little when triggered.  The lights then return to the 2200K dimmed setting after a short amout of time (5 minutes).  After the lights are turned of by the time of day routine, a triggered sensor will turn them on and then return to them to off after a short amount of time.

While I could add a shield to the light fixtures to hide the bulbs, the light level and warm CCT makes the lights look very nice and not obtrusive at all.  They are pleasant to look at and with our roof overhang do not shine light up in any way.  The flexiblity to make them brighter and raise the CCT if there was a need, makes this a great all around solution.

– Mark

Remarkable Skyglow

IMG_2789As I left the church the other night, I was surprised by this crazy example of skyglow from lights along the Carlisle Pike?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so bright and vivid of an example of skyglow.  All those lights pointed up without any purpose or benefit.  It’s not the lights in the foreground, lighting up Rt. 15.  Look at the bright blue-gray swath above the building.  Not sure what those lights are from yet but they are amazingly bright with absolutely no good worthwhile purpose.

So why would we do that?  What a total waste of energy.  There might as well be a big smokestack billowing smoke into the air to generate that energy –  Oh, somewhere there is…..   How can we destroy the Earth in so many ways at once?  Remarkable, eh?

Mark

Recent Adds to Resources

IMG_2642

Chilling the scope down a bit and adding a couple notable links to the Lighting Resources.

In January, I attended this Signify Webinar titled, Light Pollution, the Effects on Animals and Humans.  A very good watch.

Signify Lighting Academy Webinar Replay: Light Pollution, The Effects on Animals and Humans.

Also, a good add was three links containing definitions for the BUG rating system.  The first of those links on the Resource Page have a graphic at the end that is worth 1K of words.  Check it out.  LEDs need a lot of attention paid to this, especially the Glare rating.  From what I see, most lighting engineers are paying it no mind.  Spend a moment and look up the BUG rating in the device specs and do customers a favor.

ALSO! If you can, go checkout Globe at Night and Loss of the Night app.  Submit some data tonight!

Globe at Night Citizen Science

Well, I’m going out in the cold to chase down a hunter and look at a big dog, a little dog, and another little dog.  We have little dogs in the sky and one in the house.  It’s appropriate the brightest star in the sky is in the Big Dog, and another in the Little Dog, and they are both watching over us and the littlest dog tonight.  Go outside and look up tonight!

Mark