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(meteorobs) Re: Power Crisis to reduce light pollution

>.. California governor orders lights dimmed

A short but inaccurate way to say some lights are to be turned off.  The
mosaic of lights will then be dimmer.

From Joe about 1973-74:

>..some of the streetlamps in my old Bronx neighborhood of Throggs Neck 
>were inexplicably extinguished, quite possibly as part of some grandiose 
>energy conservation plan.

>... there was no legislation in the works to try and 
>keep those lights diminished after the "crisis" passed.  

The Florida Keys in 1978 went into conservation mode a year ahead of the
Iranian upheaval.  Half the lights along US 1 were turned off, opening up
new observing potential.  I spent that August with Felix Martinez observing
between Upper and Lower Matecumbe Key, a 3-mile-wide stretch over water with
bridges and fill islands.  It was about 3 miles closer to Miami than our
site on Lower Matecumbe, and with little overnight traffic, we had almost no
interference from lights.  Next to the water with a breeze held the
mosquitoes off quite well.  

On trips down to the Bahia Honda Bridge we found the park at one end had all
but one light turned off, and Big Pine Key to the west was also dimmer.  One
unique problem with the Lower Keys at the time was no connection to the
mainland grid south of the Seven Mile Bridge.  The isolated small power
plant at Key West was rather unreliable for years, and observing from Bahia
Honda several times had nice blackouts.  Those took us back to the 1940's
with blackness in all directions for a while.  The sky overhead was
unaffected but we would notice the sudden darkening out the right side of
our eyes as we faced south.

Around 1981 large power poles spanned the water parallel to Seven Mile, so
the Lower Keys became tied into the main grid.  No more conserving--all
lights were turned back on and new ones put in.  By 1984 the fabulous Bahia
Honda sky was compromised, and highway traffic had become heavy and constant
all night.  I haven't been back since as there is no longer any reason to go
there.  The local economy won't miss a couple of astronomers, for there are
a thousand tourists to take our place.

At the present time only businesses are being picked on in California.
There is plenty of room for conservation by turning off excess street
lights.  One intersection east of town here must have 50 lights.  Seems like
2 would be enough.   If a city street isn't lit like a tennis court the
lighting is  "insufficient."  At least in the city of Fort Myers the fully
shielded ones are being used almost everywhere--very bright on the street
but dark above.  I wish the county would follow suit and not use the cobra
lights.  Local businesses are already quite good at turning off lights after
hours.  The late-night sky at home can be surprisingly good for the
location, occasionally reaching LM6.0.  Being near a mile-wide river ensures
a dark corridor.

The present drought is one of the worst ever.  Since the end of September I
haven't seen a full inch of rain come down, in a few fitful sprinkles only,
over a period of 4 months.  About the same pace as Death Valley.  We have to
get all the way to the end of May for possible relief.  The recent cold
weather has killed off a lot of vegetation so the fire season, already under
way, is going to be rough.  One large fire, inside Lake Okeechobee, is
proving beneficial.  The receding lake water has exposed choking exotic
water vegetation and dried it out, so burning it off is good.  But the air
can get smoky at times.  I'm too busy for meteors right now anyway.  Just
hope the Lyrids won't be smoked out on April 22.

Norman

Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society

Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com

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