Campbelltown stargazers fight light pollution - help!

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

This article has just appeared in our local rag in south-western Sydney. Please, if you have the time, have a look at the article and post a comment supporting this council initiative. Maybe other councils will look at what's going on and propose similar guidelines in your own area.

http://macarthur-chronicle-campbellt...wn-stargazers/

Light pollution under attack from Campbelltown stargazers

11 Oct 09 @ 11:12am by Ben Pike

(In reference to picture below) Ragbir Bhathal (right) and Julie Bourke want to protect our skies from light pollution for the next generation.

AS the 400th anniversary celebration of Italian astronomer Galileo’s discoveries in the night sky approaches next week, stargazers have decided to get together in the hope of rescuing Campbelltown’s night skies from increasing light pollution.

With the number of stars around the Southern Cross visible from Campbelltown halving over the past 20 years, Campbelltown councillor Julie Bourke has resolved to introduce guidelines to reduce the impact on our night sky of lighting associated with development.

These guidelines - including putting hoods on street and sporting oval lights, as well as using blinds on taller buildings - will be part of the next review of the Campbelltown Council Sustainable City Development Control Plan due early next year.

The push comes as stargazers prepare for the International Year of Astronomy cornerstone event, Galilean Nights on October 22-24.

The nights celebrate 400 years since Galileo’s discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter.

“Seeing the stars in the night sky is one of the attractions of living in Campbelltown with its open space and relatively unrestricted skyline,” Cr Bourke said.

“Sadly, however, increasing urban development results in light pollution which dulls the clarity of the celestial bodies which could otherwise be seen by the naked eye.”

University of Western Sydney Campbelltown Rotary observatory director Ragbir Bhathal, said Campbelltown residents could also help do their bit to help.

“There’s a lot of lighting around the home which is not needed, and people would be surprised how much money they could save if they didn’t always have the lights on,” he said.

“Campbelltown city has a number of high-rise buildings where there's a loss of light.”

But Campbelltown Mayor Aaron Rule wasn’t so enthusiastic about the idea.

He said public safety took priority when it came to lighting. “We’ve got to balance those concerns with a public need for lighting with streets, freeways and major arterial roads,” he said.

I've posted the following:

Mr Rule says “We’ve got to balance those concerns with a public need for lighting with streets, freeways and major arterial roads.”

I agree - but not to the extent that you must also light the night sky above them. Hoods over lights are a great idea, as they'll reflect light down (if reflectors are used appropriately) and, as a consequence, make the downward-aimed light more concentrated. This might result in lower-wattage bulbs being able to be used, obviously saving ratepayers money. More than that - we may see something of our night sky again. I congratulate Ms. Bourke on her initiative to attempt to save both our money and local skies.

[Outbackmanyep]

Well at least it's getting through to someone and being talked about, the need is for more sensible lighting to minimise waste light being sent upwards, while at the same time not risking lighting needed for public safety.
Councils will be quick to poo-poo the idea because they think that we need to switch lights off and plunge everyone into darkness, which is a knee-jerk reaction at large!
Try Country Energy (Integral Energy in the sticks) that has an option as a fee to put a whopping great spotlight fom a power pole to light up your business from the road, if you have seen these then you will see what a great WASTE of light and electricity they are! The churches around Armidale have these set-ups which point upwards to illuminate their spiral structures and don't give a flying f&$% about the night sky.......like many people do......

Good luck with it!

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

We were out at Siding Spring on Saturday and they have a mosaic of the light pollution from there. Glows from Sydney, Newcastle, Port Macquarie and a number of other country towns are clearly visible. Coonabarabran is too, and you'd think they would have enough influence to get at least those fixed.

The best skies we saw were from Beechworth, Vic. SWMBO wouldn't let me take anything bigger than binos.

[astronut (John)]

We astronomers are (at least in the interim) never going to influence politicians to change the lighting laws (and enforce them) by using the disappearance of the night sky as the reason.
We have to hit them in their ideology!!
Climate change is the "Religion" of the political sphere around the world, so...........we inform them that all those power sapping lighting units are contributing to the demise of the planet.
They won't be able to have much comeback from there!!

[renormalised (Carl)]

Well, I live nowhere near Campbelltown and I just put my 2 cents worth down. The problem is many councils just don't want to hear what you have to say and being politicians many will just ignore you. Best way to get them to change is to make it an election issue as well as a public interest/environmental issue and say to them if they don't do something about it, then they'll get voted out of office or not get voted in (if they're the opposition).

[TrevorW]

They keep sighting security as an issue but thats BS stats show that most robberies happen during daylight hours

Whats wrong with turning them off residential street lights after say 1:00pm like they use to do

[Darth Wader (Wade)]

I read this article in the Chronicle last night with a heavy heart. I have all but accepted the fact that light pollution is going to increase considerably over the coming years to the point where I'll have to A) move out west or B) sell the scopes.
BUT... I believe there is a way for this to possibly work in our favour - in addition to the environmental impact, both the council and Joe Public need to be made aware of the financial cost of light pollution. Everybody likes saving money, especially whilst we're riding the "Global Economic Crisis" wave. Lighting gets corrected, taxpayers save money, astronomers do a merry jig. Yes, I'm an idealist.