Via AstroDyke I read an article in the New York Times about astronomy communities being built around the country in places like Arizona, Georgia, and Florida. These are towns founded and lived in by people who want clear, dark skies, so they have established these communities in places where there are no city lights to interfere with nature’s glory.
I’ve been reading about these places for some time, and I think it’s great. It’s too bad our well-lit civilization has forced astronomers to do this, but it’s great to see people taking this issue into their own hands. This is a natural extension of dark sky star parties, events where astronomers gather to have fun during the day and observe at night. I love star parties. I’ve been to several (though not the biggies yet — Texas and Nebraska– although, hmmmmm, it’s only a six hour drive for me now) and the sense of community, fun, and love of the sky is so refreshing and energizing. Plus: big ’scopes! Woohoo! I would never have the chance otherwise to peer through an 18″ Obsession fitted with an [OIII] filter (lust lust lust); years ago I used one to observe the Veil nebula, the twisted and filamentary remains of a star that exploded long ago. To call it spectacular is to seriously insult the view: it was like a white rag, twisted and curved, set against the night sky.
It took three things to get that view: a big ’scope which can swallow a lot of light; the filter, which let through light from the hot but ethereally thin supernova gas but blocked much of the sky glow; and a dark sky to start with.
I may never live in one of those communities, but it’s good to know that others are, and care enough to set them up and maintain them.
June 13th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I report news on Sahuarita, Arizona (south of Tucson) and probably a couple of years ago, there was some debate over a store’s lighting, and whether it would meet Dark Sky requirements. I have to give the Town Council credit, they backed the local astronomy community (Kitt Peak to the west, Mt.Hopkins to the east) rather than giving in to the corporation that wanted brighter lights ‘for the safety of their customers’. (Green Valley, an unincorporated town, is mostly retirees, so there’s not a lot of late night shopping)
J/P=?
June 13th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
It’s my understanding that, with a little work, most forms of SAFETY lighting (as opposed to advertising) can use shields that prevent much of their light from straying upwards. Did I just imagine that?
June 13th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Just last week we had one shop owner here in Frankfurt who had its light turned off by the police. No, not because the local astronomers where annoyed. It was because his 3kW Sky Effect Floodlight was placed within the approach area of Frankfurt Airport. Several Pilots reported a new misleading runway illumination.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:18 am
I think this is a brilliant idea, and I would very much like to live in such a place.
The problem, however, is when those cities become too big. I have been in some pretty bad areas in LA and New Orleans at night (in a car), and what those neighborhoods seem to have in common is bad lighting. If you want a safe largish city, I don’t think you can get around lots of street lights.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:41 am
There are streetlights that illuminate what they are supposed to illuminate. They do not look stylish, but they do their work. And by the way, what is the purpose of illuminating the streets with >100W per streetlight in the mid of the night?
I don’t need an illumination sufficient to find a lost contact lens.
Where I live the streetlights are reduced to 25W per streetlight after 22:00h.
Yes its dark in between, but usually I am asleep and those who are not are driving around in cars that come with its own illumination.
June 14th, 2007 at 1:23 am
What really ticks me off are those lights used to illuminate historical buildings or even worse the whole “historical” city center by using high-pressure sodium vapor lamps directed from the base of the building up its wall.
In the town where I use to spend my holidays they use a whole bunch of these.
After 22:30h, when they are turned on, 3/5 of the sky are washed away in a slightly yellow/orange glow.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:16 am
If you want safe, turn OFF the lights! To get around in the dark, you need a flashlight, and become easily visible to everyone else. The high school where I used to live turned off the all the lights at night and eliminated a vandalism problem. Besides, most crime happens during the day, so the light must help criminals rather than hurt.
There is a ton of info on this at http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/crime.html
I was just looking at the Veil nebula through a 16″ with an OIII filter, in dark skies. I’ll echo all the BA’s comments about it!
June 14th, 2007 at 2:26 am
I live in Aurora CO which is a companion city right next to Denver. The light pollution here is extreme at best. Even if I drive to a darker sky location we use which is about 25 miles east of Denver, the light dome is still humongous.
If you look at M31 (spiral galaxy in Andromeda for those that don’t already know) here in the city, you might be able to see a bulbous glow. From our observing site using my 10″ Dob, I see a brighter and bigger glow.
However, at the Weekend Under the Stars in Wyoming last year, I got to look at M31 under a super dark, transparent sky thru a 32″ Truss Dob. I had to climb to the top of a 12ft ladder to look thru the eyepiece. That may have been the most spectacular observing experience of my life. We could clearly see the individual spiral arms and even clumps of dust and gas. We also looked at the eastern side of the Veil Nebula. Unbelievable! I could see incredible detail that Ive never seen before. I mean, this stuff looked like preocessed photos.
My point is, that although these views were largely due to 32″ of aperture, you have to have dark clear skies as well. That 32″ wouldnt be worth doodly squat here in Denver. I do have to admit though, to a rather ugly bout of aperture envy after that experience…I was so ashamed
)
By the way Phil, what do you think of the sky view from Boulder now that you’ve been here for a couple of weeks? Not too great is it? Denver to the east, Colorado Springs to the south, and the mountains blocking the western view? It can’t be good…
June 14th, 2007 at 2:26 am
You’d think in a world of sky high energy prices and where there is a desire to reduce dependence on foreign energy suppliers whose revenues might partially help fund people who want to kill amateur astronomers that more efficient lighting would be a priority. Maybe terrorists show up better under sodium emission lines???
June 14th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Oh, high-pressure sodium vapor lamps are quite “energy efficient” (when compared to standard bulbs), and I doubt that any terrorist would try to tear down the steeple of a church located in a 580 inhabitant town in the south of France.
But nonetheless, these lights really p*** me off.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:00 am
BA,
If this writer gig works out, you can live wherever you want…
June 14th, 2007 at 3:52 am
To quote Lisa Simpson: “Nobody ever wrote a poem about orange barf glow!”
June 14th, 2007 at 8:19 am
DenverAstro… I can’t speak for the BA but the last time I visited Boulder I found it an immensely better view than anywhere witihin 75 miles of the San Francisco Bay area – the BA’s former stomping grounds. I currently live in Sacramento and it’s ALMOST as bad as being in the Bay Area but not quite. Nonetheless, I found Boulder better than here… I’d be willing to bet the altitude and the much lower levels of smog have alot to do with that. Of course, the Bay Area has a population approaching 5,000,000 people too which is roughly equal to the entire state of Colorado – which probably has alot to do with it as well.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:52 am
LabLemming– well, that’s why we moved to Boulder!
June 14th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Dan Gerhards: That’s an amazing input. More light equals more crime? I never thought of it that way. I used to live on crack alley in Hawthorne, Calif. There were plenty of street lights, but it didn’t inhibit the drug dealers at all. It seemed they just used the light to better see narks sneaking up on them,,,
I work nights at Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia, but even though the biggest city(Atlanta) is 40 miles away, we still have significant light pollution, even from the town of Cartersville, which is quite small, around 10 to 15 thousand.
Still, it’s better than Los Angeles,,,
Gary 7
June 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am
More light=more crime? Well, watching one of the questionable programs on NGC (as I recall) about the moon, the standard ‘full moon means more crime’ riffs was presented.. but NO one noted that the full moon means more (natural) light, allowing crimiinals/taggers/whatever the ability to see what they’re doing.
J/P=?
June 14th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I lived in Bakersfield, Ca for a couple of years. You can’t even tell there is a sky there at all except on windy spring days. Between the car pollution, the agricultural pollution, and the extensive use of street lights, lit business signs, lit billboards and the like, the nighttime sky has been pink for 15 years or so. Really, solid pink. Looks like a sky full of cotton candy, and forget about telescopes. Sometimes you can’t even see the lights from low flying planes. As bad as L.A. and sometimes worse. So being the astronomy loving sci-fi buff that I am, what do I do? I move to the central coast area with it’s permanent marine layer. Between the two places I’ve seen the Milky Way maybe three times in fifteen years.
“Movin too Montana soon…”
June 14th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I first noticed this trend in Sky & Telescope. There was a hotel near Santa Fe that advertised that along with their other hotel in the country amenities they had a dark night sky and TELESCOPES! You didn’t even have to bring your own.
I can imagine a few astronomers spending a long weekend there and deciding that they had their retirement life style down pat. Some people retire to golf courses. Some like those hamlets with a runway down the middle. Some like a dark night sky and telescopes.
Personally, I’m glad to see this as a developing trend. You don’t expect to do much visible light astronomy from street level at Times Square, but it’s nice to know that there are some places where the night sky is valued.
June 15th, 2007 at 7:23 am
…Nonetheless, I found Boulder better than here… I’d be willing to bet the altitude and the much lower levels of smog have alot to do with that…
I live in Longmont (about 15 miles northeast of Boulder and 35 miles from Denver). The skies here are actually pretty good if it’s clear (I’ve occasionally *just barely* seen sixth magnitude stars without a scope). I’ve lived in some similarly-sized cities in the eastern United States and the skies here are much better overall.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Wow… 6th mag unaided. I’ve had nights here where it was hard to spot Mars.
Anybody need a network admin/general computer guru in Bouder?
June 15th, 2007 at 8:36 am
…Wow… 6th mag unaided. I’ve had nights here where it was hard to spot Mars…
It was, I must say, only *barely* 6th (5.6, if I remember correctly, from an AAVSO chart I was using at the time). So don’t read too much into it — I still need to get a few miles out of town to make galaxy viewing especially worthwhile.
June 17th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
While the New York Times article did a good job of profiling the few existing dark sky communities, many of us will never be able to afford second homes, and expensive private observatories. My vision is to create an affordable, sustainable dark sky community that shares resources as much as possible, operates an astronomy resort & education center, and nurtures collaborative research. Nothing like this exists yet.
If you have an interest in this vision, please join the DarkSkyCommunities group on Yahoo!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DarkSkyCommunities/
Thank you,
David Oesper
Moderator, DarkSkyCommunities
Dodgeville, Wisconsin
June 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Phil, Danka for reading my humble little blog. I’ve been a fan of Bad Astronomy for years.
Kodos to David et al. for stressing that while dark-sky retirement communities are a neat fringe movement, it’s more important to reduce light pollution where average people live.
I just flew back from Tucson, AZ where I had an observing run @ Kitt Peak National Observatory. Tucson’s population is half a mil, but you wouldn’t know it standing on Kitt Peak, only 55 miles away, where I enjoyed dark skies, the summer Milky Way, and 2 nights of data-taking scientific happiness. How is this possible?
Here’s the answer. Take any flight into Tucson at night. You’ll descend over streets evenly lit by regular sodium circles. The city is well-lighted. So what’s different from other cities? Then you figure it out. No lights glare UP, at you in the plane. Street-lights aim DOWN, at the road, and wear hats to stop light from traveling upward. Ditto for billboard lights (aimed down, not up). Car dealerships are lighted, but not blindingly. Tucson has lights. They’re just intelligently placed. They save energy, energy, & dark skies.
As a result, the countryside 5 miles outside of Tucson, AZ, is far, far darker darker than 5 miles outside my home-town of 10,000. SMART lighting, that’s the ticket. And the solution is for ordinary people to get their town councils to adopt lighting ordinances that prevent waste and reduce light pollution. Check out the noble people at http://www.darksky.org/