"Bob Schmall" wrote in message
...

"Charlie Self" wrote in message
...
I love this time of year, early morning before it's light, and nippy air
that
helps clear the head. Today, I need to cut some cabinet doors, and I
don't want
to waste plywood, so I was standing outside thinking it out--this
sometimes
works better than pencil and paper--when I realized my rural area was
suffering
from a bit of light pollution that wasn't here a few years ago.

I think it's these blasted dusk to dawn insurance lights. Every small
church
has at least five (insurance companies require them at every entrance and
every
obstacle of certain types). Many houses, including one across the road,
and two
others a quarter mile up the road, have one.

Sky & Telescope magazine, the Fine Woodworking of that hobby, estimates
that more than half the people in the world, and 2/3 of those in the
United States, cannot see the Milky Way. During the recent blackout in New
York, people were calling the police to report a strange huge cloud over
the city. Yep--our galaxy.

I have a famous poster of the United States (there's one of Europe also)
at night, taken by satellites, that shows the entire country lit by
unrestricted lighting. It's easy to pick out your own home town. The
question is, why are they visible from space? Aren't lights supposed to
illuminate the ground?

The loss of the night sky is not only saddening, it is unnecessary. As an
amateur astronomer I know that a high percentage of our lighting is
misdirected, and that proper shielding would not only preserve the sky
but--more importantly for most people--save huge amounts of money. San
Diego changed to a more sophisticated lighting some years ago and saved
the taxpayers about $300,000.

And of course we all know the effect of bright lighting in reducing crime?

The International Dark-Sky Association (http://www.darksky.org/) has
drafted sensible lighting ordinances that would both preserve the night
sky AND our security and safety. Rush Limbaugh has, of course, labeled
them a bunch of left-wing nuts. He's wrong--their purpose is simply as
stated in the first sentence of this paragraph.

Bob

when i fly over a city at night, a lot of light is reflected off the ground
back into the sky. shielding the light wouldn't have any affect on this.