Confused trees

Hi,

www.kwastronomy.com/Sherrill_Bad_Lighting.htm

The picture in the bottom corner "Here are some very confused trees. This picture was taken in late November. Virtually every other tree in town away from streetlights had already lost their leaves. These trees, near the streetlight in the foreground, have apparently not realized that winter is upon them, and kept their leaves. This is very unhealthy for the trees."

If anyone in Ireland has noticed deceduous trees that still have leaves due to the proximity of lights please send pictures on to us.

Cheers,
~Al

One thing about those photos is that they are over-exposed. Not really a big deal, but if your putting your case to the uninitiated and to get them on your side, I think it helps to be exact and not exaggerate (not that I think he's trying to).

I do sympathise with that guy. Just when you think your safe in a semi-rural area, neighbors and local businesses kill that advantage with obnoxious lighting.

Something I heard about HPS lights - the wavelength that they give out is mostly in the region of what plants use for their flowering cycle.

When I was still living in Dublin, I kinda noticed that some trees take a little longer to shed their leaves that are around street lighting. But who knows, there is so much light in the city that most trees could be affected at the same time that you wouldn't really notice.

One thing about those photos is that they are over-exposed. Not really a big deal, but if your putting your case to the uninitiated and to get them on your side, I think it helps to be exact and not exaggerate (not that I think he's trying to).

I think the images on that site are possibly only a little over exposed. The reasoning on taking such pictures seems to be to use an exposure which brings out the surroundings to the level that you would expect to see them lit up to. i.e. if you cover over the light on the image, does the picture look like you would see it at night? if so then its reasonably accurate.

But I agree that overexposing images just to get the effect probably isnt the best way to go.

Cheers,
~Al

The reasoning on taking such pictures seems to be to use an exposure which brings out the surroundings to the level that you would expect to see them lit up to. i.e. if you cover over the light on the image, does the picture look like you would see it at night? if so then its reasonably accurate.

Absolutly. The dynamic range for photography compared to human eyesight is quite limited. Though there are some tricks to balance things out - i.e. taking several shots at different exposures and combining.

You could also say that this is how it looks to a backyard astronomer, whos eyes have adjusted to darkness and then just looked up from peering through a scope.