Switching streetlights off late at night, or not...

[The Thing]

Lucky you, they are turning all your roads' streetlights off! You should try and record some sky darkness measurements over the next few months as they implement the switch off. It's odd that Bethersden appears to have no streetlights despite being on the A28.

[mickw]

What's a street light ?

[Tony G]

What's a street light ?

If you are about Wednesday Mick I may pop in with your charger (another covert mission)

Tony G

PS sorry to hi jack this thread......it will not happen again.

[mickw]

If you are about Wednesday Mick I may pop in with your charger (another covert mission)

I'll be here purple penguin - any further communication should be on our personal network in case the plan is jeopardized 

[Carole]

What's a street light ?

[ApophisAstros]

i have always wondered why some motorways donot have street lights ie ok to drive at 70 mph in the dark but not ok to drive at 30mph in town.
where i work the locals were asked to vote on whether to have streetlights at all , hence no street lights in a lot of areas, as
a result lower council tax for them.shame everywhere is not asked.

[MarkS]

You should try and record some sky darkness measurements over the next few months as they implement the switch off.

Definitely - it'll be quite interesting.

[Tony G]

i have always wondered why some motorways donot have street lights ie ok to drive at 70 mph in the dark but not ok to drive at 30mph in town.

I think the reason is to see the pedestrians in the built up areas usually 30mph zones as well as obstacles like parked vehicles, islands, potholes, etc, as there are not too many on the motorways,  (with the exception of the M25 for pedestrians, as sometimes it maybe quicker to walk. )

Tony G

[Carole]

You lucky people living in these areas, but at least it gives us more DSC choices and better skies.

Carole

[Kylee]

I'm in Dartford and ours all go out at 0100 until 0530.....it's been like that for a month now 

[RobertM]

Seriously, it's 1am and you find yourself in the garden without a torch and a copy of your favourite paper (as one does).  The street lights are off, due to some mislead nutcases (astronomers and country folk and the like), and you want to read said paper- you're in a bit of a pickle aren't you !  Us townies don't need a torch, we can read the paper anytime, in fact if it gets any brighter we'll be needing sunglasses at night too

Where's the green with envy emoticon when you need one 

[MarkS]

Robert, don't worry, if it's anytime near full moon you can sit in a deckchair in the garden and read the paper - both in town and country.  I know - I've just been out and tried it (between clouds).

Generally, at home, my SQM readings increase by approx 0.25 between late evening and early morning - I guess this is as people switch lights off.  At Rother Valley and Kelling Heath, I've noticed a more pronounced effect - an increase of between 0.3-0.4

It'll be interesting to see if I now record a greater difference following the midnight/1am switch off.  Maidstone and Ashford account for a large part of my skyglow and it appears that large numbers of streetlights there will be switched off.

Mark

[RobertM]

I recently got 15.71 on my iphone app - not very good I don't suppose

[MarkS]

I recently got 15.71 on my iphone app - not very good I don't suppose

Which app is it?

[RobertM]

DSM - dark sky meter

So far I think it's a little optimistic but at least it stands a chance of giving me relative readings.