Something I was pondering.  Why was my light meter not showing light that I could see.  I mean I saw strong shadows but little or no light was registering on the meter.

Well, something that is probably in widespread misuse.  And it doesn’t seem to be owned up to by the lighting engineers and architects I am talking with.

Gigahertz-Optik has a nice document about LED measurement and a very nice tool to go along with it.  Their MSC15 Low Cost Spectral Light Meter looks like an amazing tool.  https://led-measurement.com/MSC15-spectral-light-meter/

Their LED measurement document sheds some light on the subject of my pondering. https://led-measurement.com/practical-LED-light-measurement/

Quoted from their document:

Traditional light and luminous color meters are built with photometric V(λ) and colorimetric RGB filtered detectors. The spectral response of these detectors are made to match the CIE and DIN standardized V(λ), Y(λ) and Z(λ) spectral functions as close as possible. For decades the filter photometer has been the basic tool for all kinds of light measurement applications in research and industry. Filter photometers and luminous color meters are typically calibrated with CIE Standard Illuminant A calibration lamps which are tungsten halogen lamps operated at 2856°K. Test light sources with a similar broadband, continuous with low blue spectral content emission spectra can be measured using the filter photometer with acceptable measurement uncertainties.

However, measurement uncertainties increase significantly for light sources with a different spectral distribution than the calibration source like fluorescence tube lamps (FTL) and compact fluorescence lamps (CFL) which have higher blue spectral content. This is due to the filter photometer spectral mismatch error. Quasi-monochromatic LEDs and blue LED stimulated white LED emission spectra are totally different than that of the calibration source and may create further unknown increases in measurement uncertainty. Note that filter photometers are still widely used and do an excellent job when properly specified and applied. Plus their large linear dynamic range and fast response time makes them irreplaceable for several applications.

(Gigahertz-Optik LED measurement)

Bottom line, use the right meter to measure blue stimulated white LED lighting.  There may be a lot more light than you think.  Like Whisper, my little lighting mascot, you might not be seeing the whole picture!

Mark

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is a pretty familiar painting.  On the left is the original.  On the right is a worthless, washed out version.  Where light pollution is prevalent, a washed out image of the beautiful night sky is all we get to see.  The beauty is missing.

It seems much of lighting design is all about the light.  Often a greater truth is missed.  Contrast is required to make lighting beautiful and functional.  Just like with Van Gogh’s painting, lighting design is about the light AND the dark.

In music, if all the instruments play crazy full on at the same time, you lose the beauty of the music.  Music becomes only a dreadful noise.  In audio engineering, the mix and mastering is all about the contrasts.  Each element is balanced and put in the perfect spot by the engineer.  Writing and arranging music is all about contrasts between empty space and the parts.  A groove does not exist if there is no empty space for the musical transients to live in.

Lighting design should be the same.  Light and Dark need to be artfully combined.  It’s not about light and it’s not about dark.  It’s about the whole.  The dark and light working together to create a thing of function and beauty.  The ebony and ivory of piano keys, the letters on a page, a beautiful painting, a wonderful photograph.  Contrast.  Light and the Dark are required for something to be seen in its full beauty, in it’s fully expressed function.

Design for the whole.

Mark

Update:  Interesting app but I have to agree with the review.  It’s not very accurate for spectrum analysis.  Price-wise, it would be amazing if close.  Does’t appear to be though, at least for taking a quick look at outdoor lighting SPD’s.  Will have to read the documentation more.

I found a cool iPhone app today that will give you the spectrum of lights.  You can find it on the Apple App Store as Light Spectrum Pro.

The app website:  Light Spectrum Pro developer website

Another app by the same company is named LuxMeter.The manual for the LuxMeter Pro Advanced has good information about the app and how to take measurements.  The manual is titled for LuxMeter Pro Advanced so not sure if the app has been renamed?

I have no idea on the accuracy.  There was one review that said it wasn’t very accurate so I wish I had a real tool to do a compare.  Any one out there who could do the compare?

The interface is pretty nice.  It also includes the CCT reading and the spectrum. The pictures are from a lamp with a Philips Hue Color LED device – during daylight – just for a quick test.

I will visit some lights tonight and post the results.

Mark

I started on my morning ritual these days…. looking up links on light pollution and following the rabbit trails.  Today, my search query turned up mostly research about human health consequences from light pollution and ALAN.

Cancers, obesity causing Type II Diabetes, initiation of Bipolar Disorders and their future increase.

In a few minutes, I added 15 research reports or media articles to my read list on various maladies and how ALAN is exacerbating or causing the disease.  Very sad when we know what is causing the increase but we can’t stop drinking the poison.  Very sad when evidence is abundant and we can’t get a handle on implementing solutions to prevent the problems!  Very sad when government fails us.  Very sad when solutions abound but are ignored.

Yes, last night I watched a bike race on my iPad.  Shouldn’t of done that.  I had the time so….  It was a little rainy last night, so I had to shut our curtains to reduce the skyglow hitting the back of our house – from a warehouse complex almost a mile away.  The first thing, that was on me. The second thing….  I had no choice in.  Second Hand Light?  No thank you, please.  I don’t want all the stuff that comes with it.   That’s not nice!

Tally the human cost.  Add that to the wasted energy costs….

Mark

Light is a powerful arranger of nature and an orchestrator of all the life processes, affecting every living creature on earth.  Light and Dark are some of the most powerful, most pervasive forces in nature.  Together, they govern and time all our life processes at a very deep internal level.  Since they can’t be touched or held, it seems they are grossly underestimated.

For today’s post, I’d like to highlight a great opportunity to do some citizen science and help out a researcher.  Christopher Kyba is looking for observations especially on this coming weekend (March 1-3 and March 29-31).  It only takes a couple minutes to do and the whole family can help out.

Go here for Chistopher’s blog:

Loss of Night Blog

You will need the Globe at Night webapp.  Information on that can be found here:

Globe at Night

Also, please note a couple of new links for the 2016 AMA report and the IDA White Paper on the resource page.  In addition, check out Alexander Ryer’s Light Measurement Handbook.

Sunny Days & Clear Dark Skies 🙂

Mark

The public pretty much trusts that local, state and federal governments are working on their behalf to keep us safe.  In the case of light pollution, it seems as though the Gatekeepers are sleeping.

The EPA and PA DEP, have a couple items written by employees about controlling light but aside from that, there is no vision, policy, research, testing or plans for regulation of light as a pollutant. Legions of blue-rich LEDs installed in so many commercial, municipal environments have been put in place without so much the slightest consideration of their proven effects on humans and the environment. These devices (including the blue-phospher headlamps on vehicles) have not been tested/rated on health, safety or environmental effects.  Because of energy savings, these devices are just let loose on the public, when in effect, the increase in device numbers, intensity and unlimited operating hours make the energy savings non-existent.

People that we trust to protect us are sleeping on the job.

Lighting consultants and their companies sell lights.  No hippocratic oath that goes along with their work.  Developers are a proven lot to discard environmental concerns over profit.  A large majority of commercial companies on earth will sacrifice the environment and the public for profit.  The public, we the people, are the ones on whom the consequences come to roost.

So I’m asking for the Gatekeepers to wake up.  This wake-up call shouldn’t be my job to do.  There are other, more enjoyable missions for me to embark on.  But, for the moment, do I use one lantern or two?  How about a laser pointer?

Paul Revere’s Ride – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

On Sunday, we brought home this sweet little sheltie puppy named Whisper. We’ve been quite busy since then!  (Yes, our night time sleep space is red-shifted before bedtime and we are ALL sleeping through the night!) Single handedly (because my other hand was holding her!) I read though some research on light pollution’s effect on pollinators.  One of the best was written in 2017 from the University of Bern and is added to the Resource Links Page.  Also, please check out the CNN report on insect population collapse  Light pollution is a factor in this decline.

Another addition first up under the Environmental Resources section is an fascinating document I ran across.  It’s a very thorough research and analysis of ALAN’s effects on the whole of nature and also suggests using a framework for further analysis of the ecological problems of light pollution.

The document offers the explanation that light and dark as resources, and light cycles (daily, monthly, seasonal).  Also the idea that light and dark are information triggers for many natural cycles throughout all plants and animals (including us).

In the introduction, don’t miss the point of the overarching effect of the natural cycles that have played out over the milleniums and think how light has shaped life as we know it.  The natural biodiversity we experience daily, which is critical to our environment’s health, is a result of the natural cycles of light and dark.  For eons, light has informed and shaped all life on earth.  More than just the night and day 24 hour cycle, the light/dark cycle also plays out in monthly and seasonal rhythms.  Through ALAN, we are dangerously disrupting all earthly life and intertwined ecosystems, and foolishly wrecking the biodiversity of the planet.  The reseach was from 2013, BEFORE the advent of the widespread use of the blue-phosper LED’s which have a even heavier disruptive ecological footprint than the devices then.  The link is also on my links page.

The ecological impacts of nighttime light pollution: a mechanistic appraisal

After some more research, some Signify Lighting Univ webinar videos and eCourses, I had some time to research some for more valid links relating to light pollution.  A lot of rabbit trails to follow!

I organized the web links into General, Human Health and Environmental Health sections to help group related studies, reports, and videos.

In addition, I started a new section on Solutions – What individuals, local municipalities, suppliers and designers are doing to decrease or eliminate Light Pollution.

Hope the Links page is now easier to navigate.  If anyone has good information or links to good solutions that would be appreciated.  That is what we need the most of all.  Proof of the ill effects of lighting up the night are all over the place and easily found.  Bad design and installations abound.  We need solutions and best practices.

Also, if anyone has information or contacts to good light pollution related research or development of good lighting components, I would love to plug those.

Mark

While on vacation at Disney World, I noticed how they used lighting very effectively.  They used the appropriate levels of lighting to keep everyone very safe and comfortable at their parks and resorts.  Most fixtures were full cutoff, very little glare, and the lighting levels were very easy on the eyes and accommodation levels.  The lighting was always appropriate for the task at hand.  More on that later.   In spite of the size of Orlando comparded to Mechanicsburg, our skies are VERY much worse than Orlando’s.  That is a big surprise.

This week, I’d like to encourage families to participate in The Globe at Night’s campaign to count stars and compare visible magnitude limitation charts and report the data to Globe at Night’s database.  You can use their app, Loss of Night, or go to their Webapp to report your findings.

The Globe at Night

My sky in Mechanicsburg, PA, measured via their app running on my iPhone, is 2.81

Using the charts, my skies measure in between the Magnitude 2 and Magnitude 3 charts so 2.81 is a good number.

Try it out!  It’s some citizen science for a good cause!  Families can participate very easily and everyone can learn something!

Mark