An Astronomer Lives Here

The photo at left is a picture of the street behind my backyard. As you can see, there are streetlights lining the entire length, just as you’d find on many streets. These streetlights are the reason I can’t set up my telescopes in my own backyard, they flood my house with so much light, they actually cast shadows.

These streetlights are the reason I can only see stars down to about magnitude 3 from my house.

Well, I finally got fed up and did something about it. If you look closely at this picture, you might see something slightly different about the streetlamp in the foreground. It’s very subtle in this picture, you may have to click on it to see the larger version.

Do you see the difference? The streetlight in the foreground has a shield on it. That shield is blocking the light from shining into my backyard.

Pretty cool, huh? Here’s a closeup.

I found out from the International Dark Sky Association that I could call my local municipality and request a shield or full cutoff light fixture be installed and that more times than not, they try very hard to accommodate the request.

Well, I knew that I was sick and tired of dealing with those lights ruining my night vision in my own backyard so I gave it a try. I called the city engineer and he told me all I needed to do was write a letter and send it to his office. Six weeks later, I saw the crews out there installing these shields.

They aren’t perfect by any means, but it’s better than nothing. While these lamps are classified as full-cutoff fixtures, they are pretty high off the ground and much of the light spills over into my yard. This cuts it down by about 30 percent or so.

I’ll let you know how it goes on the next clear night. It’ll be the first time in a long time that I’ve actually tried to use my telescopes in my own backyard.

Technorati Tags: light pollution