Friends of the Irish Environment

:lol:

I thought of a laser but couldn't figure out where the sensor was... Then I thought about a 100 megawatt directional search light... Finally, I was going to dig out the old air rifle...

But I was the bigger man and walked away...

When I was living in Dublin I also had problems with one specific public light.

This light was strong enough to reduce important work that I was carrying out on measuring specific faint variable stars in collaboration with other observers.

After some frustration, I decided to use a pellet gun, which solved the problem. I was very happy with the results I obtained which were eventually published in a astronomy journal. If the light was still there I would have had no data and be a very disappointed astronomer.

A friend of mine at the time namely Eddie Cassidy whom had an observatory in Ballyedmunduff, Co. Dublin, also had similar problem, even though his observatory was high up in the Dublin mountains. The Co. Council had one light that flooded his observatory. He got permission by the Co. Council to use a hood that could be winched up the pole, rather like hoisting up a flag. This worked for him and he was able to perforn good astrophotography with his Celestron 10 telescope thereafter. Of course in those days things may have been more flexible with the Co. Councils.

I am sure there may be a list of imaginative ways of reducing light pollution from specific lights that hinder ones valuable observing work.

It would be good to hear from others on this matter

Eamonn A

:lol:

I thought of a laser but couldn't figure out where the sensor was... Then I thought about a 100 megawatt directional search light... Finally, I was going to dig out the old air rifle...

But I was the bigger man and walked away...

You could walk away as you could see where you were going thanks to their lamp. :lol:
I have to say, the laser is the way to go, they'd be baffled as to how its not working, a pellet riffle will be too obvious and will probabily have them knocking on you door (presuming you can find the sensor, presuming it even has one :shock: ).

Wasn't there a mention of a nuisance lighting policy you could take against your neighbours through the county or town council? I know in England last year, there was a nuisance light pollution clause passed in parliament, making it mandatory to change the direction of your outside lights if asked by a neighbour that was adequately bothered by them. Would love to see that come into effect here.

Seanie.

hi Dave,

yes, Seanie is right; the light would be considered a nuisance, the same as if they were blaring loud music continuously. Obviously, a "stepped" approach should be taken rather than falling out with the neighbours.

maybe invite them over to look at the set up or observe Saturn some clear evening. Then explain how their light interferes with your hobby (i.e., ask them go back, switch on the light, and come over again to see the difference).

if that fails, then contact the Council (I think). They probably have a section to arbirate in the "dispute". If you are still having problems, then a solicitors letter and legal action is the next step.

I'm afraid that woman is in for a shock at that stage because the ruling will almost certainly be in your favour . . . the nuisance law is quite a serious business if it comes to enforcing it and I think prior to legal action this should be outlined to the neighbours because most people are dismissive of these things, without realising the consequences.

John

Hi All -

The Sunday Times was a very good article by our standards!

I have posted it to our site at

www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/pap...e=thread&order=0

but I don't want to mess up this beautifully organised site by posting it to a less than useful part of the site as it might be good for you to blazen on your home page.

I have also set up a Dark Skies catagory within the Papers Today on our site. If anyone spots a good article anywhere on this subject, please send it or its url to me and I will post it. We do a daily free environmental news service with over 500 subscribers around the world and the Papers Tody website gets over 80,000 hits a day. (We're actually on 'holiday' now.)

I'll try and get our legal people to check out what rights we have - I assume that because England introduced the legal concept of light as a 'statuatory nuisance' it will be necessary to do so here but maybe not.

I had a thought.

DARK SKIES DAY
I was wondering if you all would be interested in raising the campaign profile this year by linking into a 'Dark Skies' day or week internationally?

I think there may be a date set - if your various 'affiliates' would be willing, the idea would be that they would each independently contact their own local radio and local papers and give them a generic press release modified for their area and made locally relevant.

We'd be glad to help where we could - perhaps especially preparing a generic press release the different groups could modify and identifying the better local radio stations, of which there are many with more than 50% local coverage - but it would be best if it came locally. Maybe this idea should be posted as a new thread???


THE NEIGHBOUR
And the neighbour. Well, when I first started doing a marine debris campaign some time ago, I used to see one of my neighbours (from a few miles away) stopping every day and taking his little bag of rubbish along a well worn path to the cliffs, where he chucked it over. I guess I coud have said something, but it seemed to me that my 'job' as an environmentalist was to raise general awareness of waste and its proper disposal so widely and so clearly that my neighbour would change his habits, along with so many like him.

It has happened. I don't pretend for a moment that it was MY work that did it, but my work was part of change that we encouraged and which has resulted in almost litter-free Ireland and the virtual elimination of plastic bags, a world first. My neighbour's path to cliff has grown over and what was accepted only a few years ago would now be considered unacceptable.

If we could do for light pollution what we all did for litter...

Happy New Year!

Tony