Author Archive: Roy Alexander

The milky way in Autumn over the roof of Battlesteads Observatory

The Big Switch Off.

The Big Switch Off of lights across Ambleside and Grasmere is happening again this year on Thursday 23rd February, from 7pm.

Following the success of two previous events, street lights will be turned off and businesses and residents are encouraged to take part by turning their own lights off.

Too many lights are left on overnight when not needed, wasting energy, adding to electricity bills and releasing more carbon emissions into the atmosphere.  Artificial light at night is also harmful to wildlife, can damage people’s sleep patterns affecting long-term health, and creates light pollution when too bright or badly fitted.

Lots of local businesses, residents and organisations in Ambleside and Grasmere are taking part, including hotels and B&Bs, St Mary’s Parish Church Ambleside, Ambleside and Grasmere Primary schools, and lots of householders.

Friends of the Lake District’s Dark Skies Cumbria Officer, Jack Ellerby, said: “Last February the clear skies gave a really impressive show of thousands of stars after all the lights went off. I talked to visitors and residents out and about and they were so pleased to have the opportunity to see so many stars. This year we’ve created a ‘Dark Skies room brochure’ leaflet for accommodation business guests to encourage them to step outside, look up and be wowed by how many stars they can see.” Read more about the Dark Skies Room brochure here.

Please do join in with the Big Lighting Switch Off on 23 February and come along to enjoy the evening experience.

Gillian Kelly, of Ambleside Action For A Future, said:

“The annual Big Switch Off is about encouraging all of us to reduce the wasteful use of energy, to ask ourselves, do we really need so many lights on all through the night? Seeing lots of lights go off is a highly visible way of getting the broader messages across to safeguard climate stability and help to reverse the severe declines to our threatened wildlife. Lots of individual small actions add up to make a collective improvement for people and the planet.”

Huge thanks to Cumbria County Council’s lighting team for making the event such a success by switching off road and street lights, plus Ambleside Action For A Future, Grasmere Village Society, Lakes Parish Council and South Lakeland District Council, who’ve all worked together with Friends of the Lake District Dark Skies on the Big Switch Off initiative.

The Big Switch Off takes place during Annual Star Count Week (17-24 February 2023), run by the CPRE, The Countryside Charity, asking people to take part counting the number of stars they can see in the Orion Constellation to help monitor light pollution trends in Cumbria and across England. Read more about the Star Count here.

 

 

 

https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/News/the-big-switch-off-be-star-struck

 

 

Case Study: Night/Dark Sky Friendly Lighting Retrofit.

These are before and after photos of a lighting retrofit at the National Outdoor Centre, Plas Y Brenin in Capel Curig.  (Scroll down the page to see the final, amazing results!)

The project was managed by Dani Robertson, the Dark Sky Officer for the Prosiect Nos Partnership between Snowdonia National Park, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley, Anglesey and Pen Llŷn Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It sits in the heart of one of her Core zones and is a complex site. It is Grade 1 listed, has three car parks, is a bit of a maze and needs to facilitate visitors at all times of the day and night who come to join residential courses, use the climbing wall or hire equipment.

Security was a concern due to a lot of high value equipment being around and also the safety of visitors as many of them come from cities and arrive in hours of darkness, many of whom have never experienced any darkness before. This previously led to lots of harsh, strong lights being installed and people still complained they couldn’t see or navigate safely!

Since the retrofit we Dani has had tons of positive feedback from staff, some of whom live on site, visitors and residents from the nearby area. These lighting changes have also reduced their carbon footprint by at least two tons a year.

Before the work, birds were recorded singing at night around the centre and Dani recorded only 1 bat foraging at the other side of the lake. Since the work, there has been recorded nearly 200 bats (many of whom have moved in!), owls and a potential Pine Marten sighting!

The final results, showing an impressive in uplighting and skyglow, a reduction in wasted light & carbon emissions, which would mean a cash saving on electricity bills, safer lighting for humans and wildlife, and better views of the milky way!

Dani is also part of the leadership team of the IDA-UK Chapter and was one of the founding directors.

a 15 second exposure showing the behaviour of insects around artificial lights. Image: Nevit Dilman It is dark and there is a streetlight attracting insects to it. Because it is a long exposure you can see the trails the insects make as they travel towards and around the light.

Environment

Human Health

Light pollution, especially the blue part of the spectrum of artificial light at night, is detrimental to human health. It is strongly linked to a variety of health issues, including heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer. Read More…

Sleep and Light Pollution

For billions of years, all life has relied on Earth’s predictable rhythm of day and night. It’s encoded in the DNA of all plants and animals. Humans have radically disrupted this cycle by lighting up the night, disrupting our own sleep patterns, causing a variety of health issues. Read More…

Wildlife and Eco-Systems

Plants and animals depend on Earth’s daily cycle of light and dark rhythm to govern life-sustaining behaviors such as reproduction, nourishment, sleep and protection from predators.  Scientific evidence suggests that artificial light at night has negative and deadly effects on many creatures including amphibians, birds, mammals, insects and plants. Read More…

Climate Change and Wasted Energy

Carbon emissions can be reduced if we turn off lights that we don’t use at night, or if we install timers or motion sensors.  These are ways to reduce light pollution, and reduce climate change that we can do today. Wasted light = Wasted energy = Wasted money. Read More…

Nocturnal Habitats and Wildlife.

Light pollution has many direct and indirect effects on our insect populations affecting almost every part of their lives. Changes are seen in mating, feeding, navigating, development and even their ability to hatch at the correct time. Two-thirds of invertebrates are partially or completely nocturnal, and even diurnal species can be impacted by the loss of their night. The situation is so serious that light pollution is reducing the nocturnal pollinator visits to flowers by 62% in some areas.  To find out more, head over the Buglife website.  There are many great people working on improving ways that light pollution affects the environment, here are just a few for you to check out.

Commission for Dark Skies.

CPRE (Council for the Preservation of Rural England)

Light Pollution Can Harm Wildlife

Light Pollution Wastes Energy & Money

The State of The Science

There is tons of research regarding how light pollution affects the environment, human health and habitats. Head over to our research page if you want to explore the database, or if you prefer a simpler (but still detailed analysis), try the “state of the science” report.

IDA-State-of-the-Science-2022-ENDownload

 

Street Lighting May Enable Crime.

Do you want to be safer at night? More and more research seems to suggest that floodlighting streets with overly bright lights is NOT the way to go.

Fewer cars are broken into at night on roads with part-night lighting (PNL in this instance is where street lights are switched off between midnight and 5am.)

Dr Phil Edwards (LANTERNS project lead and LSHTM) said: “The reason we did this research is because many local authorities in the UK have introduced part-night lighting on quiet, urban residential roads and rural roads, which have very little use after midnight, to save energy costs and reduce carbon emissions.  However, safety concerns about this policy have been raised.  Our previous research showed that switching off street lights at night does not increase crime. This new study suggests switching off street lights between midnight and 6am may actually reduce some types of crime.”

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/mar/street-lighting-may-enable-rather-hinder-street-crime

guests at Kielder Observatory in Northumberland watching the milky way.

Astronomy for Absolute Beginners

Roy Alexander BSc, FRAS, MInstP, is the Chair of DarkSky UK and Director of AstroVentures CIC and Battlesteads Observatory.

Getting Started

The milky way in Autumn over the roof of Battlesteads Observatory
Autumn Milky way over Battlesteads Observatory, Martin Kitching

First of all, make sure you are dressed warmly, because even in the summer it can get chilly at night. Secondly, once you’re outside you need to give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness and although this starts straight away you need to be outside for at least fifteen minutes to begin with. After half an hour your eyes should be adapted to the dark. If you look at your phone screen, or any other lights, you will lost some of your night vision so try not to. You can use a red-light torch at night because red light does not affect your night vision.

Naked-eye astronomy is a great way to start. Try to be sitting down on a garden chair, or lying down on something like a picnic blanket or trampoline. Things to try to spot as a beginner are; the Moon, planets and well-known star patterns like the Plough or Cassiopeia. You can download a guide using the link at the end of this page.

Some examples of dark sky objects you can see and image in a dark sky site.
Deep sky objects that are visible at a proper dark sky site. Image: Dr Martin Kitching & Chris Duffy

With binoculars you should be able to spot two or three of the objects shown above, especially the double cluster, seven sisters and the Orion Nebula.

Buying Binoculars and Telescopes

Sir Patrick Moore’s advice on buying and using hand-held binoculars was to buy any that are “10×50”. This means a 10x magnification and 50mm diameter front lenses. You can spend anything from £25 to £2500 on binoculars, but if you go for a higher magnification you’ll have to buy a tripod too. Helios Fieldmaster 10×50 are very good, and Celestron have a wide range of astronomy binoculars.

There are many, Many, MANY types of telescopes and plenty of magazines and websites offering advice on which ones to buy. If you’re a beginner then your best bet is to buy the largest manual “Dobsonian” type that you can afford. One with between 5 to 8 inches aperture is a good start. (although anything with an aperture diameter larger than 10″ might be difficult to carry.) Rother Valley Optics and Tring Astronomy Centre have good online shops and are happy to chat with you if you’re not sure.

Weather

Being an astronomer in the UK requires a great deal of optimism and a good understanding of the weather. Our favourite weather website is “Clear Outside” because it gives a detailed overview of cloud cover and a couple of other things that are very useful to astronomers. Check it out, and make sure to set it to your location.

Astro Guides

If you have a pair of binoculars, or want to buy a pair (£25-50 is a good starting price for a beginner), then you should definitely download Steve Tonkin’s free monthly binocular guide.

For ease of use at night and to protect your night vision, download and print out this guide. This stargazing guide introduces some useful apps for your phone, gives you a checklist of beginner objects and a super-simple star chat on the reverse.

Astronomy for Abs Beginners_v3.4Download
light from streetlights pours into a house on the staircase through a window

Sleep and Light Pollution

For thousands of years, humans have lived a 24-hour day marked by the rising and setting of the sun. We have evolved to respond to the blue parts of sunlight, regulating our waking and sleeping cycle. Most artificial light reduces our ability to see the starry night sky, but it also impacts our sleep-wake cycles, or circadian rhythms. These circadian rhythms are universal across bird, reptile, and mammal species

Unfortunately, in our modern day-to-day life, light pollution extends our “daytime” experience well past sunset, thanks to artificial lighting containing some fraction of blue light.

Sleep is Essential

Everyone is a big fan of a good night’s sleep, but as you can see, sleep is an essential part of your wellbeing and health.

Melatonin

Melatonin is a key chemical related to your circadian rhythm and is strongly linked to getting you ready for sleep.

In animals, melatonin plays an important role in the regulation of sleep–wake cycles.[18] Human infants’ melatonin levels become regular in about the third month after birth, with the highest levels measured between midnight and 8:00 am.[19] Human melatonin production decreases as a person ages.[20] Also, as children become teenagers, the nightly schedule of melatonin release is delayed, leading to later sleeping and waking times.[21]

Wikipedia

Blue light prevents your body from making melatonin which can cause insomnia or prevent you falling asleep at the right time.

Light Pollution and Sleep – The Science Bit.

Think of a rainbow; can you remember all the different colours there are? We are interested in how the blue part of a light spectrum (or rainbow) affects our sleep. It turns out that the eye contains a part that is specifically for synchronising your circadian rhythm. These “ipRGC” cells react to blue light, and when they activate they send a signal to the brain that stops it producing melatonin. So if you want a good nights sleep, and if we want the animals in our habitats to sleep well, we MUST tackle the “blue light” part of our lighting at night.

For you, the best thing you can do is use a blue light filter, or “comfort filter” on your mobile phone. You can check the colour temperatures of your light bulbs and make sure they are less than 3,000K, the lower the better.  (Smart lights are great, e.g. Hue, because you can set them to any colour temperature you like, for example if you have Hue lights and a google hub you can say “Ok Google, set my lights to two thousand kelvin” – try it and see!) Research on melatonin suppression due to blue wavelengths of light is available if you click here.

Red Light and Sleep

There is some evidence suggesting that red, or redder lights at twilight and night can help you fall asleep, (although other evidence suggests its the absence of blue light that acts as a passive influence.)  In either case, your brain releases more melatonin as darkness falls and tends to release less when you’re exposed to blue light.  The bottom line is that we need to sleep in complete darkness, and to avoid as much exposure to light of all colours in the hour or so before we want to nod off.

The Milky Way and several dark sky objects such as Orion and the Pleiades over Battlesteads Observatory in Northumberland

 

The Milky Way and several dark sky objects such as Orion and the Pleiades over Battlesteads Observatory, illuminated with red light, in Northumberland. Image: Dr Martin Kitching

In a 2012 study on 20 female athletes, participants were randomly given 30 minutes of red light therapy every night for two weeks. When compared to the placebo group with no light therapy, the athletes had improved quality of sleep, melatonin levels, and performance. In 2019 a 3-week study of 19 people in an office environment showed that using a combination of red with the office white light in the afternoon improved afternoon alertness and circadian rhythms. There is growing evidence that red light plays a role in triggering melatonin production at night (maybe because we evolved over the centuries watching beautiful orange/red sunsets?)

Red Light and Sleep Inertia

The Angel of the North in Gateshead is viewed looking West on a cloudy day at sunset. A couple are sharing an intimate moment as they watch the sun set.

 

An Intimate Moment with The Angel of the North at Sunset by Roy Alexander

Sleep inertia is a sleepy feeling that you feel after you wake up. It can affect your short-term memory and alertness. A small 2019 study on sleep inertia showed that saturated red light delivered through closed eyelids, at levels that don’t suppress melatonin, may help ease sleep inertia when we wake up.

Social Justice and Light Pollution

In 2019 the government published the “Landscapes Review” (also known as the “Glover Report”) which was highly critical of successive governments’ inability to do “enough to protect nature or welcome diverse visitors, and extra government funding must help drive radical change”. Consequently one of the author’s recommendations is “Proposal 8: A night under the stars in a national landscape for every child”

Being able to visit dark sky areas in the UK requires time, money and transport. The lack of public transport, particularly at night means that people wanting to visit UK dark sky areas need to have a car. Consequently, families from disadvantaged areas of the UK and poorer backgrounds are under-represented in visitor numbers to our National Parks and AoNBs.

manchester trinity way light pollution
Trinity Way in Manchester. Image: Mark McNeill

In the USA there is a direct link between how “good” or “bad” urban community lighting is used in affluent areas compared to disadvantaged areas. Disadvantaged areas in the USA tend to be mainly non-white communities – a reflection of the social problems related to embedded racism in the USA system. A group of like-minded USA lighting experts have put together the “Light Justice” group, who seek to implement “…the practice of planning, designing, implementing, and investing in lighting for historically neglected communities through a process of stakeholder respect and engagement.” We need something like this in the UK to improve access to darker skies, for everyone. (Watch this space…)

Visit the Light Justice webpage here.

Watch a recording of an IDA advocates workshop about light pollution and social justice here.

You can find out more about social justice and light pollution by exploring our research database here using the search term “social justice”.

What’s the Solution?

The IDA-UK continues to lobby the government to improve access to rural dark sky areas, but our main focus is to encourage towns and cities to apply for “Urban Night Sky” status for parks and green spaces.

Or go one step further and turn your neighbourhood into a “Dark Sky Community” like the village of Moffat in Scotland!

If you want to find out how to start the dark sky application process and find support and advice with your application, then get in touch via our contact form.