Comments on: Imagine a city illuminated by moonlight

By: deborahbyrd

deborahbyrd — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 12:55:54 +0000

Skinwalker and Russell … sorry for the slow delay in approving your comments! I went on vacation around August 10 … got back around August 20 … but am only now catching up with things.

All best,
Deborah

By: Russell Johnston

Russell Johnston — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:16:47 +0000

Imagine getting a proper night’s sleep in real darkness that would allow our normal daily hormone cycle to function. As photoperiodeffect.com describes, we could be saving more than energy, we could be saving a lot of lives if we decided we weren’t nocturnal creatures in the first place.

By: skinwalker

skinwalker — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:02:27 +0000

I live in a town with out any street lights however there are only five residences and seven people. Traveling on a mountain road at night on a motor cycle without lights? Here in the Black Hills of SD You would probably be killed from hitting a deer or other four legged animal. Several people die that way every year. One could always pull off to the side of the road and really enjoy the moonlight. but that’s just me

Yes Deborah campers do notice the night sky, At least for my family that is one of the reason for getting away from city life.(when We did live in CA) Here where I live now the milky way looks like a plume of smoke across the moonless night sky.

By: Heads up and eyes to the moon on August 28th at Beverly Spicer

Heads up and eyes to the moon on August 28th at Beverly Spicer — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:51:13 +0000

[…] was just reading Deborah Byrd’s post “Imagine a city illuminated by moonlight,” about city planning that includes lighting adjusted to the variable intensities of the moon light. […]

By: Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:31:06 +0000

Hi George! Yes, Austin’s old moon towers, as they’re commonly called, are beloved here.

I would love to live in a place where lighting is restricted.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:31:02 +0000

What an awesome idea. The moonlight is very cool and I think more people would notice if we did have these types of lights.

By: George Curtis

George Curtis — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:10:27 +0000

I am glad you did finally mention the moonlights of Austin. A really nice idea, and maybe one that should be revived (and had fewer of the hard shadows you noticed).

That would work well with the controlled lighting you described.

In astronomy areas, such as the island of Hawai’i, lights are restricted in several ways, and all streetlights are sodium vapor, which the observatories easily filter out.

George Curtis, UH

By: hope

hope — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:13:47 +0000

Tucson, Arizona even has city ordinances to limit light pollution. They are also home to the International Dark-Sky Organization http://www.darksky.org/ with the mission to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies. I love that there are organizations working on innovations to protect and utilize nature and its cycles opposed to dominate it.

By: jina

jina — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:55:37 +0000

This is an incredible idea. Learn more about light pollution at www.britelitesout.com

By: Jon Gates

Jon Gates — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:50:41 +0000

Thanks Deborah for posting this! It’s a very interesting, innovative idea indeed, but I can imagine it’s limitations. For example, physical features like hills and cliffs could potentially block natural moonlight from illuminating certain areas, in which these moonlight-sensitive streetlights would be on permanently. But the concept is fantastic!