The Daily Telegraph in the UK has run this story regarding experiments by local councils in turning off street lighting to help save money. Now I personally view this as good thing. The British Amateur Astronomical Association currently campaigns on behalf of all UK astronomers to save us from the orange glow of street lighting. Where I live in Chelmsford, Essex, the council have started to introduce town centre lighting that reduces light pollution through cowling of the light and better direction down onto the street.
This is a reasonable start however, the lighting experiments have not met with complete excitement. Members of the public are unsure of the impact that this will have on local crime in the areas where the lights are being switched off between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. in the morning. Letters have already started to come into the local newspapers regarding the darkness as a shroud for criminals and road users. I say, first, it has been proved in studies undertaken by the BAAA that lights help criminals, not darkness, as it allows them to see better when they are breaking into houses. Secondly, road users have lights, turn them on and use them!
Hopefully the results of the test in Maldon in Essex will spur the council on to switching off all the major conurbations' lights between these hours so I can actually see stars fainter than magnitude 3 or 4. I still haven't seen a deep sky object from my back garden.
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