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How dark are the skies near you? And what do you see/hear?


Ahlyah Ali
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Light and sound have such an impact on our experience of a place. I live in a town in an area with lots of light and noise pollution. Just last night in the garden left in awe at the brilliance of the Blue Moon (and trying, though failing, to spot the Perseids or trace out constellations) despite the glare of lights from homes, thundering helicopter circling overhead, wail of sirens, and the odd fireworks shattering the night. Even so, in Spring the evening chorus can be heard over it all, and the odd fox might visit briefly. And the moon shines, even if much of the tapestry of the night is hidden.

There's an interesting map by CPRE of England's light pollution and dark skies, which helps visualise this in more detail. How dark are the skies near you? https://www.nightblight.cpre.org.uk/

What do you see looking up, and what do you hear in the dark that uplifts you? Or - and it is a privilege to have a safe space to observe the night sky -  what do you hope to see/hear? One night, I hope to see the Milky Way stretched out with my own eyes, and hear the song of a nightingale...

657429082_FullMoon.thumb.jpg.09d02fe8464f6e0f72f380265b2e5e40.jpg...

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wow! that's beautiful! 
Sadly I live pretty central in Plymouth so there are far too many street lights to see much! My bedroom is in the loft though so every now and again I get to see some stars! 

I grew up in the middle of Dartmoor though - my nearest neighbor was around 3 miles, if you don't count the sheep! It was pitch black up there, so peaceful, you could hear insects and small animals foraging for their dinner and looking for somewhere to sleep. 

I love the stars and the sounds of nature, it's so calming and peaceful! 

Thank you so much for sharing the link! Maybe it will come in handy when I'm looking to buy my house in the middle of nowhere! 🙂

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That sounds beautiful, @Abi Palmer-Greenwood, thank you! Would love to visit Dartmoor one day. The darkest skies I remember were on a visit to Kashmir as a young child, as my grandmother lived in a village with much less light pollution (though also, I think much more precarious access to electricity). Memories of lying down outside on this woven bed/chair gazing up at all the stars. 

And yes - sounds like a good use for the map 😉.

I found it interesting how there are areas with much darker skies comparatively to where I live which don't look too far on the map (although as non-driver will have to research how feasible they are to travel to) which might be good to explore in winter when possible. I was aware of places like Northumberland International Dark Sky Park for truly dark skies, but good to know there are closer places which are at least darker than what I would normally see.

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I adore this thread!

I live in West London (Brentford) and I'm afraid that, between the Heathrow flight path and other light pollution I struggle to even see the stars. I find Brentford a total delight in the daytime, with all its canals, wildlife and Georgian architecture but at night ... bleurgh. 

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It sounds lovely during the day, @Antonella! I live close to a hospital and a high school, and often hear helicopters overhead as well, but nice to have the garden to occasionally see what stars are visible. Was so elated in March this year having seen and identified my first constellation (Orion, with help from an app!) right over the point of the roof in the garden, belt dazzling. I think it had been cloudy earlier that night but then had cleared enough to see, so perhaps there's more opportunities than I thought for 'backyard astronomy' 🙂 

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  • 1 month later...

I think that light pollution from street lighting has in fact reduced wonderfully, in the last decade, as a result of LED white light and in plcaes, white light sources such as compact flourescent tubes, replacing High Pressure Sodium (HPS) with its (at a distance) slightly purple-tinged glow). However, close to, the light was attractive, straw coloured, sun light rather bthan moonlight in effect.

HPO light was actually a huge improvement (i.e far less polluting) on the previous orange glow (think Lucozade, think Irn Bru) given out by Low Pressure Sodium (LPS). The latter was ubiquitous in towns and many rural areas in the 50's 60's 70's 80's and 90's.   It disfigured the night sky, with an overpwering orange coloured fog, particularly depressing and miserable in damp winter weather, washing all the streets and whole sky over london and towns across the UK, in a ghastly orange contamination.

In some areas, cold blue/white Mercury lights ( a bit like a colder vesrion of moonlight) were selected instead of LPS back in the 60's when many councils still had Tungsten light bulbs in their street light columns.

Around the country, street lighting is getting better, nt only with white light in lieu of orange, but also with far less upward light spillage, and with downward facing "cut off and semi-cut off , directional lighting. The old Low pressure sodim used to be called "Sodium Vapour lamps" which not only decribed their technical nature (the light being caused by an electric charge inside the long tunbes, in a vapour of sodoim) but described their environmental impact quite accurately too.

We have lighting scientists / engineers and manufacturers to thank for inventing these improved lamps, particularly the nventor of LEDs.  Plus the County and Borough lighting engineer sfor taking them up, and councillors for agreeing to use them.

 

The biggest sky-obscurers now seem to me to be badly controlled and far too  bright industrial lighting from warehouses and distrubtion centres in places like Swindon.

The latter town's light at night is so ridiculously bright, it is a massive blot on the night time rural landscape of North Wessex. 

Over-bright domestic lights, security lights, sport field flood lights, and over-bright uplighters and outlighters and even many downlighters conspire to dazzle passers-by, disturb night flying insects like glow worms, and spoil the lives of owls and humans alike.

The devisers of home and garden makeover programmes where back gardens are lit up like North sea oil rigs, and front gardens can be seen from outer space, have a  lot to answer for.

The battle against excessive, ill-focused,  and disfiguring lighting is far from won, but the street lighting sector neesxs our praise for the work it has done in recent decades to clean up the skies.  

 

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