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06-03-2004, 04:35 AM

In article ,
(N. Thornton) wrote:

"Neil Jones" wrote in message
...
I've cross posted this to uk.rec.gardening and uk.d-i-y because I
believe it's on topic for both groups.

I'm redesigning my back garden at the moment and my thoughts have turned
to lighting. I would like to illuminate the terrace which is just to the
rear of the house, but also I'm considering some path lighting and maybe
some accent lighting to highlight specimen trees, planting groups etc.
This would mainly be for use during the summer but occasionally we would
switch the lights on at other times, for effect.

I live in a rural village so I'm conscious of light pollution and don't
really want to brighten the night sky which could affect other locals.

I'll discuss my plans with my neighbours before I go ahead but I have a
number of questions initially:-

What is best practice regarding this kind of lighting?

Mains voltage, low voltage or a mixture?

Is this a daft idea and I should forget about it?

Many thanks

Neil

Well, some good qs. Firstly light pollution: its a relevant but
overused term. Sending light up into the sky is wasteful, but
'pollution' is really a misnomer. If vast amounts of light are sent
upwards, it reduces visibility a bit for astronomers. Hardly what one
would seriously call pollution, but waste.

Utter ********.

When I was 10 I could stand in my back garden at midnight and see an
amazing starfield, with the Milky Way slashing across the sky like a
great neon light. Nothing to do with astronomy and everything to do with
being awestruck by the majesty of creation.

Kids don't see that now (I live in the same house, have the same back
garden) because the street lights don't go out at 11:30 anymore, every
house has a security floodlight and the school playing ground nearly
half a mile away has floodlights that are sometimes on all night. The
garages near my house are now lit up all night as well and the main road
has much brighter lights.

There is nothing over-used about the term light pollution.

(And to the original poster: make sure they are beautiful and never have
them on un-necessarily)

--
"Noah's Ark is a problem...We'll have to call
it early quantum state phenomenon--
Only way to fit five-thousand
species of mammal on the same boat"

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