EMU Astro Club-Light Pollution
Our Vanishing Night
Earth at Night -NASA image
(click on image to enlarge)
Erosion of the Night Sky from Light
Pollution
"I remember camping as a kid when we could
see so many stars you couldn't tell one constellation from the next, and
the Milky Way was a river of light". "It was so dark you could
hardly see your hand in front of your face, and I saw my shadow on the
ground from Venus!" The lucky ones among us have probably
made these claims, but sights such as this are becoming increasingly rare.
Only a generation ago, many could still see the Milky Way from their backyards.
Unfortunately, the overuse and poor quality of modern outdoor lighting
is fast destroying a valuable natural resource - a dark nighttime sky.
The light pollution that results from this misuse is, however, the easiest
of pollution sources to fix. Please read on....
As much as 25% of electricity consumption
(by far the #1 source of air pollution ) in the United States goes towards
lighting. We could save conservatively $2 BILLION a year and millions
of tons of coal with more efficient use. A typical 100-Watt incandescent
bulb could consume 750 pounds of coal and emit 2000 pounds of CO2 in one
year - just one bulb! Choose energy efficient, downward directed,
full cut-off, lighting fixtures in key locations only where needed.
And please don't aim them UP. These simple fixes would cut wasted
energy consumption and production of noxious greenhouse gases, plus SAVE
MONEY without compromising safety and security. You wouldn't let your water
faucet run all night...what about waste light pouring into the night sky?
We all pay eventually in the form of higher taxes and product costs.
Power demand from electrical grids in several states are being taxed to
the limits while the utility companies profit from our waste.
The Canadian government is imploring its citizens to cut back on their
energy use to help meet Kyoto protocols... why not the U.S.? (Example:
the monitor of this server is turned off when not in use and the
CPU energy star compliant)
The Culprits:
Poorly designed streetlighting -
The next time you see the late evening news,
notice the "tower camera" views TV stations often use. Then
ask two simple questions: Why is the night sky orange instead of black?
And, why are so many lights visible from the top of the building
tower and from miles away? Generally, if you can see a fixture's
light source from more than a hundred yards away, it's a bad fixture.
Decades old designs such as cobra-style and, worst of all, acorn-style
fixtures scatter a large amount of their energy needlessly to the
sky. Responsible cities are adopting more effective full cut-off
designs as they change their fixtures- note the examples below. Call
your town officials and insist that they do so as well - please.
Hey, it's your money.
All-night service stations -
Many gas stations are installing 30, 40, even
50 or more brilliant halogen fixtures spraying light that can be seen from
a mile away! This happens in spite of canopies that are designed
to contain the light. The guise is safety but the real purpose is
advertising, like moths attracted to a candle. A station may have
a low profile sign that is regulated by ordinance, yet the rational for
the law ends up defeated by the excessive light. Then
the station across the street has to be brighter, then the next....
before long your town is screaming with glare and clutter!
Brighter is not better.
Hotels, motels-
Don't we go to a hotel to sleep at night??
So why do many hotel chains shine brilliant flood lights up on their buildings
at night? Effective, shielded security lights are fine - advertising
floods, please... no more. Heavy blinds often fail to make rooms
dark enough for a good night's sleep. This practice defies common
sense.
"Insecurity" lights-
Do you have a neighbor that leaves that annoying
yard light on all night (or do you)? Use motion detector lights....
they work and are off 99% of the time. Reminder - the vast
majority of home break-ins occur during the day when you're away at work.
Light trespass is a law that can be enforced so take note neighbor!
Purchase a "glare-buster"
to do the job of yard illumination correctly. Be kind and don't shine.
Building decor-
Lighting a brick wall and landscaping simply
for architectural vanity is a sin. Please stop this practice.
We know the building is pretty.... we can see it all day long.
Car dealerships and empty shopping center
parking lots-
Even parked in a lot, cars pollute.
Dealerships super-illuminate with true-color rendering halogens in the
hopes you'll spot that dream car at 2am.... you and maybe one other
lone night owl. This goes for parking lots in general.
Money and fuel can be saved just turning off lights that do nothing
more than shine on empty pavement most of the night. Again, using
excessive or needless lights burns fossil fuels and generates air pollution.
Fast food restaurants-
Some are bright enough to keep your fries warm in the parking lot!
Burger and fries at 1am... well, that's another problem...
Flags-
Flags lit by brilliant flood lights are even
more unpatriotic. Think of all the fossil fuel across this great
country that is being consumed for this purpose yet most of the energy
(95%) misses the mark. Subdue or even turn off the lights (there's
a law that needs changing). Better yet, take down the flag at night
if possible! P.S. Some of those flags are neglected, tattered
rags having been left out for months on end in all sorts of foul weather
because of sheer laziness.
These are just some of the many examples (gosh,
did we mention sports facilities and billboards??). Our
purpose here is to make people aware that light pollution is a serious
concern and that something can be done to correct it. We need
your help, too! Let business and government officials know by contacting
them.
Daylight Saving Time - shifting time was implemented in the
1970's to help conserve the need for energy use by extending sunlight into
the latter part of our day during the warm summer months. The rational
for this practice seems to have been lost on today's society.
New
England Light Pollution Advisory Group
An excellent source of information! Please visit this
web site!!
An EMU Physics and Astronomy
Light Pollution Educational Program
funded by the
Michigan Space Grant Consortium
The Michigan
Space Grant Consortium graciously funded our public outreach
program designed to inform and inspire students and local governments to
take action regarding poor lighting in their communities. Each
program was given on site at schools at no cost to the host institution,
consisting of a semi-formal lecture (30- 45 minutes typical) that invited
audience participation while defining causes and indentifying sources.
Participants experienced first-hand the astonishing amount of effort needed
to generate and distribute electricity for lighting, and to appreciate
how human activity has changed our world. The overall goal
of this program has motivated participants to become part of a solution
to a problem that affects almost everyone, and how each individual can
truly make a difference in making a better environment for us all.
Contact Mr. Norbert Vance
regarding a presentation for your school.
A Few Typical
Examples of Wasteful Stray Light.....
Ford Rd. in Canton, Michigan .......These "pretty" acorn-type fixtures
that are supposed to enhance the scene actually produce a cold, excess
glare, make seeing cars difficult while driving, lose 70% of their
light to the sky where it's not needed, are placed too close together,
and "charm" a discount department store, strip malls, chain theater complex,
and a supermarket. Fixtures like these continue to appear in many
area towns such as Ann Arbor, Belleville, Oxford, Plymouth, Wayne, and
unfortunately for Sherzer Observatory, Ypsilanti, further eroding our
skies, too. This is a victorian attempt to mark downtown, particularly
absurd in places that are essentially strip mall zones and trunk road business
corridors. Check with your municipality to make certain plans
are not under way to install them - most citizens don't realize this until
the lights are being put in. Poorly designed utility lighting is
high on the list of wasted tax dollars at work.
If you are a member of a DDA (downtown development authority), please
do not consider these lights. Or if you live in a town that is considering
installing them, please implore your town government not to. They only
look
victorian
in the daytime....at night they have no similarity to the faint, gas-light
glow of long ago. The unshielded glare dazzles the eye, akin to a bare
bulb without a lampshade. They are being sold as "pedestrian-oriented"
yet are primarily intended to light busy roadways. Driving down a
street illuminated with "modern" victorian-style lamps often requires squinting!
Tucson, AZ and, locally, Brighton
Township, MI have tackled the problem of waste lighting by effectively
eliminating such fixtures through legislation. The city of
Los Angeles, CA has been replacing the bulk of its street lights with effective
full cut-off, shielded fixtures and is very pleased with the results.
Check out the lights on Eureka Rd. at Vining, south of Detroit Metropolitan
Airport's runways for examples of excellent fixtures (wonder why
they're properly shielded near the runway approaches?). Ask your
community leaders to follow the lead set by these cities. In contrast,
the city of Las Vegas, NV has actually boasted in promotional spots
that it spends a million dollars a day in lighting! Yikes!!
 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
BAD Light - acorn stylexxxxxxBETTER
Light - full cut-off style
Another fine light
Here's a beautiful, full cut-off fixture used at Gettysburg College
in Pennsylvania. It's stylish yet perfect for the job of putting
light on the ground- period. And if you want historical lights, well,
you can't get much more historical than Gettysburg!
(Click here for enlarged views of these lamps: View
1 View2)
More bad news...
Car/Truck plant in Wayne, Michigan ......Here, dozens of unshielded
globe-type lights bathe a car-loading area - combined with towers of high-intensity
metal-halide parking lot floodlights and advertisement displays, they produce
a glow that can be seen from more than 10 miles away - one of the worst
light-pollution sites in Wayne county, Michigan!! Combined with a
sports megaplex to the west, western Wayne county is awash with stray light
much of the night. While regulations abound on fume and waste discharge
at factories, waste lighting and its environmental impact is obviously
not a concern here....
 .......
Late-night stores and fast food restaurants, car dealerships, atheletic
fields, and all-night gas stations have become primary contributors to
excess light. Both of the sites pictured directly affect an area up to
half a mile away! The restaurant and surrounding area are saturated with
glaring light, a problem easily fixed with a reduction in the number of
fixtures and the lights aimed down, not sideways. The number of
lights at the gas station, if fitted with full cut-off shields, could easily
be cut in half! One service station in Canton has more than 55 high-intensity
lights on its small property, another nearby has 44....insanity!!
This is less a safety issue and more a marketing ploy...bright lights get
your attention. Well, they certainly got ours...help!! Several new
station canopies in the region have smart, full-recessed can lights in
their canopies and in limited numbers. Hooray... they've got the
right idea!
Local Ordinance
and State Legislation Address Light Pollution
Brighton Township Ordinance No. 143
Brighton Township, northwest of the Detroit area, has made a direct effort
to minimize the environmental impact of waste lighting before it
becomes a major problem by clearly defining light pollution, its sources,
and how to avoid becoming a light-polluter. Click
here to view an example of good light pollution legislation
(the document is shown here as a matter of public record).
Michigan House Bill 4254
House Bill 4254, 1997-98 session, a poorly-written piece of legislation
that called for a study commmittee (yet another committee!) on light pollution
stalled in the Senate Committee on Energy and Technology and did not pass
as written. However, the problem of light pollution remains and needs to
be addressed by our government representatives now more than ever.
Please contact your local district State Representative and Senator and
inform them of this issue. Check with State
Representatives web page and the State
Senate web page to find your local government officials by zip
code. We need your support on this important issue! Several
states have statewide no-glare light pollution legislation- New Mexico,
Maine, Arizona, and most recently, Connetticut. Resource-rich Michigan
, a proud tourist destination, needs this effort enacted as well!
International
Dark Sky Association
A dedicated group of individuals are calling attention to this rapidly
growing problem as members of the International
Dark Sky Association. This Web site has some facinating nighttime
satellite images of our planet as well as tips on how you can help fight
light pollution. Become a member yourself!!
How bad is the level of light-pollution in your area? What are
the faintest stars you can see from your location (can you even see stars!)?
Jump to the "Little
Dipper Star Count" page and try it! See what surprising
results you find!!
Good Lighting Fixtures
It is unfortunate that many hardware and home supply stores stock poorly designed fixtures that do not conserve energy and shield for stray light. All is not lost. There are some resources for excellent, light-pollution inhibiting fixtures. Check out Starry Night Lights!!
Concerted Effort
Award
Allen Park, Michigan's Park Avenue Business District
Though there are more fixtures than neccessary to do the job of illumination,
at least these are shielded and aimed down at the ground. The posts
are stylish and utilitarian as well. The fact that some effort was given
to shielding the lights and, therefore, providing energy savings is truly
becoming an exception these days. Cheap energy begets waste. Thank you
for the concern, Allen Park.
When the
Sky is Too Bright....
At a darksky site, the approach of clouds would appear as an invisible
silhouette blotting out the stars beyond. In this 8-second exposure
taken in suburban Detroit skies, way too much light reaches the bottoms
of approaching clouds thousands of feet above - a clear waste of energy.
This not only detracts from a natural dark sky but confuses birds and other
animals who have evolved over eons to depend on the cover of darkness for
their very survival! As we increasingly become a 24-hour society,
even we humans are taxing our "body clock", one that requires nighttime.
This is taking a toll which shows in everything from sleep deprivation
to the environment. Destruction of the night's darkness is
a byproduct of this change. Therefore, each and every outdoor
fixture should be placed with much more care and concern than they are
currently given. Downward shielding and careful, conservative placement
would go a long ways towards reducing the visual equivalent of a blaring
stereo. You can do your part in protecting the night sky by keeping
this in mind, and by reminding others, too.
Please practice good lighting habits....
Remember...."some of us like
to be kept in the dark!"
Return to Sherzer
Observatory homepage
This page URL: http://www.physics.emich.edu/sherzer/lightpol.htm
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