Earth Hour 2009: Sat March 28th. Dark skies!

[kinetic (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Ric

From my place I can see Canberra's sky glow to the west. there didn't seem to be any difference this year.

There really didn't seem to be much advertising of Earth hour on telly maybe that was the problem this year.

Not sure if there would really be a noticeable difference from within
a city anyway Ric.
It's not like all the individual councils here turned off any streetlighting.

Having said that, I did notice one little difference here.
I have got familiar with a star group near Antlia/Hydra that I use to
starhop over to M83 and the Antlia galaxy cluster.
Two stars that I use border on the limiting magnitude of suburban
Adelaide. They are reliably frustrating to see, but always a known
brightness.
Last night during the Earth hour, they were EASILY seen.

Strange.....maybe it was darker?

Steve

[Ric]

I was watching the news tonight and they reckoned 9% of all Australians turned off the lights last night.

Not such a bad turn out after all, hope that increases next time.

[Baddad (Marty)]

Originally Posted by Wavytone

The CBD is all lit up as usual, streetlights are all full on, I can see the SCG has its lights on from the glow there... I think "Earth Hour" has by and large got the attention it deserved - nil.

IMHO it isn't a matter of making a concession for 1 paltry hour on one night of the year.

ALL lights should be turned out after midnight, EVERY night IMHO.

Hey Wavytone.
While I was still at high school in Adelaide, '60's, The street lights would be switched off after midnight.

The group I hung with would drive up to Windy Point or Mt. Lofty Lookouts. There we had a great view of the city lights. After 12:00 banks of lights would disappear and an hour or so later the city was almost black.

Christmas '69 I walked home from a girfriend's home, starting at 2:30 AM, I had 9 klms to negotiate in dark streets. I went up wrong streets three times.
It was so dark that I needed a rare passing car to read street signs. I arrived home around 7 AM and went to bed.
My father wondered why I slept all day, didn't dare tell him.

I think from those early days I was destined to be an amateur astronomer.
I was in training.

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

Here's a link with some great lights on / lights off images showing Earth Hour in effect across the globe. Great to see so much support for it!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200...hour_2009.html

[Jen]

Thanks Steve there is some nice pics there