Look Up

There are four different kinds of light pollution. They are glare, skyglow, light trespass and clutter. Glare is when there is an excessive brightness that causes visual discomfort. A good example is excessively bright headlights and really bright LEDs in light poles. Skyglow is when there is brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas. 

That’s easy to see when you get away from a big city, you can see the glow from the city lights. Light trespass is when light goes some places unintended or unnecessarily. For instance, when your room gets flooded by a light pool. Lastly, clutter light is an excessive grouping of lights. A great example of clutter light is Time Square. 

With all this existing light, what can one do to battle against it? Homeowners, city managers and other people responsible for infrastructure can help limit light pollution by keeping lights low to the ground. Instead of using 25-foot poles to light a parking lot, conservationists say that 10-foot poles are just as effective. 

Also, for walkways, foot-lights are just as useful as overhead lamps. Experts also recommend using shielding light fixtures, so they illuminate their target instead of sending light everywhere. Some other useful tools for exterior lighting are timers, dimmers and motion sensors.

Another important factor for light sensitive animals, exterior light fixtures should use warmer colors instead of bright-white lights. Studies have shown that turtle hatchings aren’t affected by warm amber glows. In addition, this type of light is better for us, too. Other studies have shown that the blue-white light, common in smartphones and newer TVs, can reduce the production of melatonin. 

This is one of our hormones that helps to regulate our sleep-wake cycles. Dim, red lights are the best to use at night. That’s another reason why it’s not recommended to use electronic devices before going to bed. It’s recommended to disconnect from devices an hour before bedtime or to use an app that filters out the blue light. 

As the consequences of light pollution have become more obvious, lighting regulations are slowly beginning to evolve.

Look Up appears in the weekend edition. If you have any astronomical questions or facts you’d like to share email news@smdailyjournal.com with the subject line “Look Up.”