Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
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@sundogplanets City lights are (in some places at least) becoming better planned and less wasteful (I've done a few years in the smart street lighting business).
As systems are upgraded
* LED lighting uses less power than previous technologies
* switch on/off times can be calculated/measured more accurately, so lights are on for less time (they don't have to be switched on a few minutes early in order to be sure of meeting the regulatory spec)
* lights can be switched off in the middle of the night (which annoys punters) or dimmed down (which punters don't even notice, so is sometimes more politically acceptable)
* I'm assuming that better housings are also directing more of the light downwards rather than upwards.[There are also places which do weird stuff like dim the lights down when there's nobody around and then brighten them when cars are detected. This seems arse about tit to me - cars have got perfectly good headlights, it's pedestrians and cyclists who need help from the street lights.]
I realised at one point that I had all the passwords necessary to turn the lights in a particular city on and off so as to look like a smiley (or even a rude slogan) from overhead. But I never did, even when I was working out my notice.
Does anyone with the passwords feel like having Clacton say VOTE BINFACE as seen from a couple of thousand feet? It'd cost you your job, but plenty of people would cheer you on.
Oh, and one strange factoid as an aside: it seems that half the "street lights" in the USA are not lighting streets at all - they're lighting car parks.
In Suffolk we've got the new LED streetlights pretty much everywhere and they get switched off after about 23:30.
There is slightly less light pollution, but what now happens is there's an "arms race" for security lighting on private dwelling houses - some folk leave their "low level" LED lights (not all of which are properly angled) on all night and others have IR triggered lights which randomly go on and off which can be jarring (and when driving at night sometimes make you think there are vehicles behind you which aren't there)
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In Suffolk we've got the new LED streetlights pretty much everywhere and they get switched off after about 23:30.
There is slightly less light pollution, but what now happens is there's an "arms race" for security lighting on private dwelling houses - some folk leave their "low level" LED lights (not all of which are properly angled) on all night and others have IR triggered lights which randomly go on and off which can be jarring (and when driving at night sometimes make you think there are vehicles behind you which aren't there)
@vfrmedia @sundogplanets Interesting. That "arms race" was never mentioned whilst I was in the business.
I know about IR triggering. I considered connecting an IR triggered light to the burglar alarm until I discovered that it was continually being set off by cats and hedgehogs.
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@vfrmedia @sundogplanets Interesting. That "arms race" was never mentioned whilst I was in the business.
I know about IR triggering. I considered connecting an IR triggered light to the burglar alarm until I discovered that it was continually being set off by cats and hedgehogs.
@TimWardCam @sundogplanets I do live in a suburb of Ipswich which once had a bad reputation for petty crime but got cleaned up to a great extent since about 2007/8 to the point house prices rose, its now popular with middle class familes and seniors, they still have a (maybe understandable) fear of crime and are determined to protect their property (every other house also has some kind of CCTV doorbell and often cameras guarding vehicles on the driveway if they have one)
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@TimWardCam @sundogplanets I do live in a suburb of Ipswich which once had a bad reputation for petty crime but got cleaned up to a great extent since about 2007/8 to the point house prices rose, its now popular with middle class familes and seniors, they still have a (maybe understandable) fear of crime and are determined to protect their property (every other house also has some kind of CCTV doorbell and often cameras guarding vehicles on the driveway if they have one)
@vfrmedia @sundogplanets Ah, Ipswich.
I recall an incident when the police called the council and said "hey, we think something might be going to happen in the city centre on Saturday night, can you leave those lights on all night please?"
On this occasion there was a couple of days' notice, but I think the council had to have someone on call 24/7 to switch the lights on at the request of the police if there was an emergency.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
@sundogplanets they know, it’s all of it. That’s what they have lost. They don’t have the view or the time to appreciate it. For them a star, a planet, or a high flying plane are all the same thing. Until satellites start landing in cities they aren’t personally invested.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
@sundogplanets I live close to an airport, so I don't usually see a starry night sky. But I had a beautiful experience where I was in the mountains over night about 15 years ago where I saw a clear sky and it was just magical. A similar moment just 2 years ago was sobering. Most of what I saw were blinking satellites
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
@sundogplanets Most city dwellers don't realize they waste their energy complaining online instead of complaining to the city management who you are entitled to hold accountable for questionable decisions
Demand change obnoxiously, the only thing city gov hates more than working is being annoyed, but life is easy for the city who can shut off the computer to escape the consequences of their sh*tty management
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
@sundogplanets Your only escape : go to Mars
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
@sundogplanets Makes sense. Unfortunately it will only get worse it seems too. With unnaturally bright LEDs and EVEN more satellites like that company trying to put mirrors in space. Billionaires really ONLY care about that bit of more money and power. It's sad to think about.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
@sundogplanets Yes exactly. I also came across this article (on mastodon) which I think more people should read about “urban lighting” & how we’re not doing it correctly. I found it interesting (and not surprising to me) that there is significant evidence that “crime” doesn’t really “go down” because of “lighting up the night”.
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@sundogplanets Yes exactly. I also came across this article (on mastodon) which I think more people should read about “urban lighting” & how we’re not doing it correctly. I found it interesting (and not surprising to me) that there is significant evidence that “crime” doesn’t really “go down” because of “lighting up the night”.
@sundogplanets For a girl who grew up in the dark (and has excellent cat vision
) I always thought that “night lights” were annoying & made vision harder. Apparently I’m not wrong. Also, I always thought it was quite an elaborate excuse to “have large lights on all night” because “crime is less” -
RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
We're always trying to get more dark sky in our city but the people who are scared of everything want even more lights! It's horrible for birds migrating across the lake and gives my spouse midrange, ugh
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
Cities have been that way for a long time. I remember going with Scouts (half a century ago) and being absolutely awe struck at how many stars were in the night sky because I lived in the city.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
I live more out in the country, and I posted on here maybe a year ago that I thought I was seeing more things that were not stars/planets in the night sky and maybe they were satellites. I was alarmed by them. People came up with reasons why they were something else, like streetlights reflecting, etc. There are no streetlights on my street. After learning more from @sundogplanets, (thank you!)I realized that they may very well be satellites. So many concerns that for so many reasons.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
Skylab will always be there if want something to look into the light polluted night sky for.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
A stunningly beautiful quote from Yann Martel, sent to me by a satellite engineer who loves the sky:
"If you’ve never been, the south of Saskatchewan is so flat the horizon is perceptibly round. Above you, during the day, lords an immense dome of sky so empty it feels like a fullness, with clouds the size of mountains, the sun but a small disk, and a depth of colour that is often chalk blue, oh so chalk blue.
...
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A stunningly beautiful quote from Yann Martel, sent to me by a satellite engineer who loves the sky:
"If you’ve never been, the south of Saskatchewan is so flat the horizon is perceptibly round. Above you, during the day, lords an immense dome of sky so empty it feels like a fullness, with clouds the size of mountains, the sun but a small disk, and a depth of colour that is often chalk blue, oh so chalk blue.
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"At night this reassuring curtain of blue is pulled away and you realize where you really are: at infinity’s doorstep. A plain is what a mountain aims to be: the closest you can come to being in outer space while yet having your feet on this planet."
I really hope to get out to Grasslands Nat'l Park this week and appreciate infinity's doorstep, despite smoke and satellites trying to take that away.
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"At night this reassuring curtain of blue is pulled away and you realize where you really are: at infinity’s doorstep. A plain is what a mountain aims to be: the closest you can come to being in outer space while yet having your feet on this planet."
I really hope to get out to Grasslands Nat'l Park this week and appreciate infinity's doorstep, despite smoke and satellites trying to take that away.
The world would be a much better place if everyone had easy access to infinity's doorstep, to realize how small we are, how unique and fragile our pale blue dot is.
You don't need a trip on a billionaire's rocket to get the "overview effect." You can do it by finding dark sky access, which is becoming harder and harder to get, partially due to billionaires' rockets.
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A stunningly beautiful quote from Yann Martel, sent to me by a satellite engineer who loves the sky:
"If you’ve never been, the south of Saskatchewan is so flat the horizon is perceptibly round. Above you, during the day, lords an immense dome of sky so empty it feels like a fullness, with clouds the size of mountains, the sun but a small disk, and a depth of colour that is often chalk blue, oh so chalk blue.
...
@sundogplanets a friend of mine once told me about the extremes in this region, "it's not the *end* of the earth, but on a clear day, you can see it"
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The world would be a much better place if everyone had easy access to infinity's doorstep, to realize how small we are, how unique and fragile our pale blue dot is.
You don't need a trip on a billionaire's rocket to get the "overview effect." You can do it by finding dark sky access, which is becoming harder and harder to get, partially due to billionaires' rockets.
@sundogplanets I spent a week at Wadi Rum about 25 years ago and it was literally eye-opening. Living in Bavaria we still have areas with less light pollution, but standing in the desert in absolute silence and seeing what people saw thousands of years ago had a profound effect.
