Excessive outdoor lighting

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Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby ktrout » Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:54 am

I'm a member of this organization called the International Dark Sky Organization. One of my biggest annoyances is pussies who need to light up every space like daylight. The night cradles me. I can practically read at night with the ambient light around here, especially on a full moon, and I see people with flashlights on their walks. WTF? It's nice that I live on a street without street lights, but some of my neighbors weak of constitution always run their lights at night. A couple smarter ones use motion detectors. I pretty much refuse to carry any lighting on my bicycles because it practically makes me jizz to ride in the dark. Particularly on some sweet single track. As a matter of fact, sometimes if I'm camping alone in the woods on a comfortable night I'll strip naked and enjoy the rush. Full moon is cool, but I like it when there's a new moon and I can't see my hands. I only had to scare away something bigger than me once in Canada. It woke me up sniffing at me and ran away when I stirred. It snorted at me from a few dozen feet away until I clapped and shouted at it enough to make it go away. That made for a light night's sleep.
When I rode a bicycle across the US it would drive me nuts that people who were off the grid would run a generator and run flood lights. I went into the boonies to get away from shit like that.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby HockeyGuy » Sat Jan 07, 2012 3:39 pm

I hear ya...riding a bike in the dark should be someones right. Here in the Southbay (L.A.)it's a big no no, if you can believe it. To make a long story short, by not having a bike light...one thing to another and I had a .357 magnum in my face.

Personally, I like to hike in the dark, providing it's close to or a full moon. The solitude is amazing...

You can report people's light if it "pollutes", just like sound. Check your cities ordinances.
Just because light can emanate it doesn't mean it's equal...
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Woodsman » Sat Jan 07, 2012 4:49 pm

Light pollution is highly annoying. It wastes resources (regardless who pays for them) but worst of all ruins views of the night time skies, which I value highly.

Baker college has increased the light pollution in our nearest town by about 50% by putting parking lights all over their large parking lot area that are on the entire night which is not necessary.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby ktrout » Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:15 pm

HockeyGuy wrote:I hear ya...riding a bike in the dark should be someones right. Here in the Southbay (L.A.)it's a big no no, if you can believe it. To make a long story short, by not having a bike light...one thing to another and I had a .357 magnum in my face.

Wow, that's kind of rude. There are places in the Santa Cruz Mountains where that can happen. That's the thing about bicycle touring. The long stretches of plodding along are punctuated with moments of sheer terror, which makes all of the hard work worthwhile.
I would really get on that school for that. Those lefty academics are squandering our natural resources on your nickel.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby gnaruki » Sun Jan 08, 2012 3:07 am

Night trail running is fun where I go once my eyes are adjusted to the dimness a head lamp would decrease my sight distance. An overcast night nearly produces as much light as a clear full moon night due to light pollution.

On bike climbs I click my light off but I'm going to stick to running a light riding single track on the downhills. The tunnel effect from the light is neat and branches sticking out in the trail could be a buzzkill if one got in your eye. Suppose some clear lens goggles would mitigate the risk.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Royal » Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:01 am

North Korea has got that right then.
ktrout wrote:I'm a member of this organization called the International Dark Sky Organization. One of my biggest annoyances is pussies who need to light up every space like daylight. .


North Korea has got that it right then.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Woodsman » Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:58 pm

Royal wrote:North Korea has got that right then.
ktrout wrote:I'm a member of this organization called the International Dark Sky Organization. One of my biggest annoyances is pussies who need to light up every space like daylight. .


North Korea has got that it right then.


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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Hitoru » Mon Jan 09, 2012 4:10 am

FucK light pollution, I annoy my friends cause I won't use my flashlight unless it's pitch black.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby thewalrus » Mon Jan 09, 2012 5:20 am

I hear that rural parts of North Korea are really good for ground based optical astronomy, no lights at all!

you know your industrialization/development project has failed when your country is a black hole at night:

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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby JITW » Mon Jan 09, 2012 6:22 am

Only people in a rich 1st world country would start a group like this - live somewhere with 68 power outages every 24 hours and then complain about too many lights


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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby ktrout » Mon Jan 09, 2012 8:21 am

Royal wrote:North Korea has got that right then.
ktrout wrote:I'm a member of this organization called the International Dark Sky Organization. One of my biggest annoyances is pussies who need to light up every space like daylight. .


North Korea has got that it right then.

I noticed that too. Even a broken clock is right once a day. It's such a contrast to South Korea is the thing. Even Burma can't compete. Hell holes, yes. Such as most of China which is apocalyptic. Ahhh... Inner Mongolia, I remember you well.
The Earth at night is one of my favorite images. Anyone have a good overlay for Google Earth/Maps? I've thought about using it as a travel guide to the world's darkest places. Oceania is pretty dark in most places. One thing I hadn't noticed before is that the central US is visibly gridded, which is pretty interesting.
I'm starting a new "Outdoor lighting is for pansy bedwetters" campaign.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Royal » Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:48 pm

Of course, there must be millions of families each owning an fourteen inch mirror reflector telescope & enjoying their hobby.
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Ultra Swain » Tue Jan 10, 2012 4:51 am

JITW wrote:Only people in a rich 1st world country would start a group like this - live somewhere with 68 power outages every 24 hours and then complain about too many lights


~JITW


No shit, this is a perfect example for another exciting entry of Whitewhine.com. Btw, whose slogan is "A collection of first-world problems" (updated daily)

http://whitewhine.com/?81a0ea98
Geez,am I NOT ALLOWED TO BE INTENSE FOR JUST 10 FUCKING SECONDS??!!!!!!!
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby Ultra Swain » Tue Jan 10, 2012 4:52 am

Excessive indoor whining would be a great topic.
Geez,am I NOT ALLOWED TO BE INTENSE FOR JUST 10 FUCKING SECONDS??!!!!!!!
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Re: Excessive outdoor lighting

Postby ktrout » Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:43 am

Ultra Swain wrote:
JITW wrote:Only people in a rich 1st world country would start a group like this - live somewhere with 68 power outages every 24 hours and then complain about too many lights


~JITW


No shit, this is a perfect example for another exciting entry of Whitewhine.com. Btw, whose slogan is "A collection of first-world problems" (updated daily)

Nope, real world problem with real consequences. It wastes energy and disrupts the life cycles of humans and wildlife. You have to think maybe electricity would be more reliable in these places if special attention were paid to efficiency. I've traveled China halfway north to south under my own power, so I know what it's like there. At least they're putting an honest effort into solar. I hope you didn't mind me being cheeky about Burma and the DPRK. It's never been a problem before anywhere else in this forum.
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