LED Street Lights for Mark

[The Thing]

Mañana, mañana. Just like France really.

[MarkS]

They ignored their signs.  Even though the signs say next week, they did them today.  They are not too bad - I'll post before and after pictures later.

Mark

[Fay]

They must have known you were not behind the bush, and sneaked up!

I have yet to take an image with the new lights on

[MarkS]

A few before and after images - each pair is taken with identical manual camera settings and daylight colour balance:

The streetlight at the end of the drive:


The streetlights at the end of the cul-de-sac


Looking along my drive:


Conclusions:
1) The ground level illumination on the road is not much brighter than the old ones
2) The new LED lights have much better directed light
3) There is no (or virtually no) light leakage sideways and upwards
4) When you get closer to them the glare from them is very intense

First impressions are that they are an improvement for astronomy - far less local scattered light and an improved view of the night sky when looking in that general direction.

All of Ashford's residential areas are being converted between now and July.

Mark

[Fay]

well that was a surprise result mark, good that you did the test

[Carole]

Great test results.
Well done Mark.

Carole

[Rick]

It'll be interesting to see overall SQM measurement changes with time, as more of the lighting in the area is LED.

[RobertM]

Of course the conditions make quite a difference, for instance if it rains (producing a shiny surface) and snow in particular would produce bad LP.  Of course it doesn't really snow any more anyway so that can probably be discounted.  The main trouble I find is that the lights are far too bright (trying to make night into day) and have no cutoff fittings as standard.  It looks like you are far enough away from them but we've had to spend money on blackout curtains (plus blinds at the front) to allow us to sleep well even with cutoff shades fitted.

I hope it works out better for you than it did for us.

Robert

[Rick]

Yeah, I guess you'd need a lot of weather data in addition to SQM readings to draw any meaningful conclusions... :/

[Fay]

oh dear

[MarkS]

I keep SQM readings every night I'm out imaging - I have 3 years of data so far.  If there is a significant difference as the whole area becomes converted then I should hopefully spot any trend.

Robert, the design of these lights seems much more friendly than the ones I have seen in the Orpington area:



They are manufactured by Phosco but I haven't found this exact design on their website.  The houses down the road are definitely darker now and I no longer have any stray light shining down into the garden.

Later Edit: It looks as if it might be this luminaire, which they describe as "dark sky friendly":  http://www.cuphosco.com/luminaires-p852-led

Mark

[Fay]

I will take a picture of our ones tomorrow

[Mac]

Do they still have the light sensor on the top so that you can use a green laser to switch them of 
Mac

[Carole]

It's quite shocking when you look at the pictures of the sodium lighting.

Carole

[Fay]

these are in my street