Fantastic motion speech in ACT Legislative Assembly

[strongmanmike]

Listened to a fantastic Private Members motion speech by MLA Andrew Braddock in the ACT Legislative Assembly today, "Lighting in Public Spaces" all the smart best practice lighting approaches have been discussed, like dimming lights after dark, preventing light spill, proper light shading, lighting only where it's needed, lower Kelvin LED's etc he made specific references to preserving our night sky darkness too, referencing the slowly disappearing dark Emu in the Milky Way!...all the things that we as astronomers are all hoping for from governments and councils etc Halle-bluudy-luiah! Music to our ears! All sides in the chamber, including the City Services minister, have indicated positive full support! Lets hope it continues to practical implementations as indicated, all the right things have been said and discussed by all parties, in this motion at least, so fingers crossed! At least this is now formally on the program and supported by the government, oposition and cross bench, to be considered in all current and future town planning. :thumbsup:

Mike

[bojan]

Hopefully something similar will happen i VIC towns..

[The_bluester]

I could get behind that sentiment. I live about 7KM West of Kilmore (Vic) and in the 20 odd years I have been here the light cone has brightened and whitened, except when the local racetrack is running at which time there is a column of distinctly blue light hosing up into the sky.

I don't bother to image lower than about 50 degrees to the east as I see gradients, sooner or later they will build the Kilmore/Wallan bypass too, which a well heeled bloke who was going to loose a chunk of his place on all the other options managed to wrangle into coming to the West of town too (Despite being identified in the planning studies as the longest, most expensive and least effective route) That is going to involve a hulking big roundabout on our road and I don't doubt that will be "well lit" as usual.

[alan meehan]

wow thats good news and about time

[ronson]

Great news indeed and hope more cities and states adopt a similar approach.

[Rainmaker]

They actually did some tests here in the Coombs/Wright area recently where they dimmed the street lighting and photographed the results. Our CAS liaison officer has been instrumental in pushing the issue of light pollution, particularly with regards to the suburbs surrounding Mt Stromlo Observatory….
Looks like it’s bearing fruit…

[strongmanmike]

Yes, the city services minister, Chris Steel, spoke about the street light dimming trial last month in the Assembly, so it feels like what is an obvious problematic issue to us, is finally being recognised and remedial solutions are taking hold, hopefully permanently and ongoing. If the main approaches become standard, we may be able to slow or even holt the growing light dome of Canberra :thumbsup:

Mike

[Rainmaker]

I’ve been observing from a hilltop outside Michelago over several years and the Canberra light dome has brightened considerably in the past half dozen years, so much so that to view northern skies I travel to Bellmount Forest…..
We do get reasonable views to the Southwest > Northwest area from Stromlo for the public nights but anything over Canberra is a waste of effort…

[strongmanmike]

Yes, the quite good skies up there in1984, the first time I visited Stromlo to observe, have well and truly passed...:sadeyes:

Mike