I was worried when I saw the council replacing the street lights in our street and surrounding area with LEDS.
Well I needn’t have been! The lights are many orders of magnitude lower light output, directional and you cant see the lights if you view them horizontally. They only illuminate the road and there is virtually no light projected upwards.
Tonight I have never seen the stars so bright and the Milky Way looks bright and granular with great definition. This was a Bortle 4 area. I’ll be interested in an official reading but I recon our area my now be Bortle 3 or even lower!
I've noticed that the LED streetlights being put up in new developments in Orange seem to be dimmer and yellower than the horrible white ones in Sydney. Maybe there's hope after all.
Councils in regional areas are starting to take advice of certified lighting designers who specify the correct luminare for the task and location , particularly with LED street lighting
Specifying directional lighting in lieu of old fashion floods
Correct lumen output / luminous flux
Correct colour rendering index or CRI
Correct colour temperature
Use of anti glare baffles and correct reflector angles
At my Bortle 3 location down south , I have a Cul de sac behind my street and the Council have started replacing the old Sodium Vapour street lights ( which use to wash into everyone’s bedrooms) with new LED directional anti glare street lights, made a huge difference. The frontage of everyone’s homes are quite dark now with 95% of the useable light on the roadway.
Councils in Regional areas are showing the way or at least down my way
Common sense lighting design is not difficult or costly and benefits everyone , not just us Astrophotographers or visual Astronomers
I have a friend who lives around Dargan, NSW (near the Zig Zag railway) and he mentioned the other evening when I was up there he can now see the glow of street lights from Oberon thanks to the new LED street lighting.
I know the new LED street lighting in Lithgow now lights up my backyard like a Friday night football stadium, something the old sodium or mercury vapour things didn't do. They are blinding if you stare at them.
Maybe it depends on the region and what councils are prepared to spend?
Thanks to the efforts of Dr Ken Wishaw, the Sunshine Coast council has been installing more dark sky “friendly” lighting. They’re more on the warm side of white.
Don’t fancy our chances in the bigger cities, but it’s a start
