May 2007 May’s Meeting Calendar Inside this Issue Sep 7, 2006 - – Clif Aschraft – The next S*T*A*R club meeting will “Restoring the Tuthill R. Erik Zimmerman, Ph.D., be 8 PM Thursday May 3, 2007 at King Telescope” Memorial Notice of Kings Lutheran Church, 250 2 Harmony Rd. in Middletown. 5 Oct, 2006 – Dr. Kenneth Fighting Light Pollution! Kremer – “Exploring Mars and The speaker is Ed Carlos, and his topic the Search for Life” is "Measuring Galaxy Mass Using the Deep Sky Video Camera SDSS Server". 2 Nov, 2006 – Dr. Sebestien 3 Lepine – “ The Search for Clouds from Top to Bottom Editor’s Note Nearby Stars” 5 Thanks to Randy, Ernie Rossi, and John Batinsey for sending in Spectrogram 7 Dec, 2006 – Kevin Kilkenny – Science Corner material this month, and a special thanks to “New Horizons’ Journey to 6 Randy for writing the Events and other Pluto” May Celestial Events articles for every issue this year. Please send 7 Moon Phases in more articles, everyone! 4 Jan, 2007 – Daniel Kirby – Are You a STAR Member? “Pirates of the Solar System I will edit next month’s issue and then I will Caribbean” be off to college, so please step forward and In the Eyepiece volunteer to take the reins of the 1 Feb, 2007 – Gavin Warnes – Spectogram! Like the hobby of astronomy, 8 “Collimating your Telescope” editing the Spectrogram can take up as much or as little time as you put into it. 1 Mar, 2007 – David Britz – June Issue “Motions of the Earth and Moon” The deadline for the next edition of the th Spectrogram is Wednesday, May 30 . 5 Apr, 2007 – Dr. Eric Lerner- Please email any contributions to “The Big Bang Never [email protected], As always, any and all contributions are Happened” welcome! 3 May, 2007 – Ed Carlos - "Measuring Galaxy Mass Using the SDSS Server" 7 Jun, 2007 – AGM Business Meeting S*T*A*R P.O. Box 863 Red Bank, NJ 07701 HST Image of Carina Nebula Dust Image Courtesy NASA On the web at: Image credit: NASA/ Hubble Heritage http://www.starastronomy.org Team Fighting Light Pollution! Choose the winning approach By John Batinsey The New Jersey Chapter of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) asked me to make a presentation to their members at a meeting held in Eatontown on March 20, 2007, to explain the way we have been successfully controlling Light Pollution since 1993. The following is a summary of the presentation. * * * Introduction Barred Spiral NGC 1672 Most media coverage about Light Pollution present the issue Image courtesy NASA/ Hubble Heritage primarily as an astronomy problem, heavily emphasizing the need for dark skies. Those amateur astronomers who have lobbied local and state officials with this message have experienced very little success in New Jersey. Pushing too hard for dark skies is often perceived by non-astronomers as a “Light Versus Darkness Issue”, rather than a “Good Lights Versus Bad Lights Issue”. Why we need to control LightPpollution Light Pollution affects everyone and controlling it benefits everyone. This is how the Eatontown Environmental Commission presented the problem to our local governing body. We then proceeded to explain why we needed to adopt an ordinance to solve this problem. 1. First we clearly defined Light Pollution as: Launch of STS-104 (Atlantis) Image courtesy NASA Misdirected and excessive outdoor lighting that causes: - Glare R. Erik Zimmermann, Ph.D. Memorial - Light Trespass (a Nuisance) By J. Randolph Walton (Randy) - Energy Waste A memorial for Erik, ASTRA’s first leader and a speaker at - Unnecessary Sky Glow STAR, is planned for May 19 (Sat) from 3:00 PM to about 5:00 PM at the OCC Planetarium. Light refreshments will Light Pollution is understood by many to simply mean “sky follow the service. The program is still under development, glow”, but misdirected and excessive lighting causes all of but there will be time for ASTRA members and others to say the above adverse components. a few words about Erik. More information is to follow on the A.S.T.R.A. Message Board. You can read about Erik at 2. The ordinance would follow the guidelines of the IES, http://www.astra-nj.org/ErikZimmermann.html. We need a widely recognized as the foremost authority on lighting in “head-count”, so anyone planning on attending, please the US. The IES works closely with the CIE (International contact Rich Brady at (732) 840-0137 or at Lighting Commission) in providing the world with credible [email protected]. Please indicate if you want to lighting recommendations for all categories of application. speak. RSVP by May 12. 3. We explained the key elements of the ordinance that would require: The Spectrogram 2 - The use of cutoff (shielded) lights for all pole and - Business lighting affecting roadways and other business wall mounted installations. property. - Confining all other illumination to the intended - Business lighting affecting residential property. target and not spilling light in unwanted directions. - Electric Utility Floodlights affecting roadways and all - Not exceeding IES Illuminance and Luminance other property. recommendations. - Retail and industrial lighting be significantly Additional information available reduced after business hours. Additional information is available from the ANJEC 4. We showed examples of “good” and “bad” lighting, to Resource Center, such as the “Outdoor Lighting Ordinance illustrate how well IES recommendations improved visibility Guide”(17 pages). This “Guide” contains a Model Outdoor and provided more than adequate illumination for safety and Lighting Ordinance similar to Eatontown’s. It contains security; and which also avoided glare, light trespass and many references and quotes from IES publications and is energy waste. Here are some illuminance levels to compare arranged by category. It also includes a recent change that the waste of energy. addresses Homeland Security concerns. Another “tool” that would be helpful is the 2 page “Identifying Good & Bad Light Fixtures” showing pictures of various lights. Type of Facility Average Allowed Average Allowed In Eatontown Elsewhere Perhaps it would be helpful to conduct a training seminar Fast Food Restaurants 20.0 2.5 to illustrate how simple the process of review and enforcement actually is. Some actual lighting plan examples Car Dealers - Front Row 120.0 20.0 could be shown. Eatontown has reviewed at least 200 Gas Stations (Pump Island) 150.0 20.0 lighting plans and “walking” through the process could be useful. In addition, a tour of Eatontown lighting would Shopping Malls 10.0 2.5 enable attendees to see the effectiveness of IES illuminance recommendations. If you would be interested in 5. Lighting Plan submissions would require a full participating, contact ANJEC. description and picture of every light. Another requirement would be a computer generated photometric grid showing It’s time for Environmental Commissions to become active illuminance points every ten feet and a computed average. The grid would provide a means to review uniformity. Join us in fighting Light Pollution. Much of the outdoor When applicable, lights to be turned off after business hours lighting in New Jersey is a train wreck, with some retailers would also be identified. still installing outrageous floodlights in parking lots, unshielded wall-packs and or excessive levels of lighting How the ordinance has worked with the direct glare source highly visible from roadways and other properties. State and local roadway lights should The lighting plan review process has shown to be effective not cause glare problems. Electric Utilities continue to and fairly simple to administer. Any problems found are carelessly install their floodlights in easement zones and discussed with the lighting designer and usually resolved elsewhere to illuminate parking lots with no regard to glare before meeting with the Planning Board. At the beginning, issues. It’s time to fix this problem. The only way this can some engineers/designers complained that they never had to work is by adopting an ordinance. submit such information before. In some cases, when the designer was unfamiliar with providing such data, we suggested that they ask the manufacturer to supply a Deep Sky Video Camera photometric grid (since they want to sell light fixtures). This By Ernie Rossi proved to be a successful solution. I have been involved in astronomy for more than 5 decades Existing lighting (Grandfathered) causing Light Pollution and that includes serious observing. As an avid observer, you’re always looking for the darkest skies and the largest A second lighting ordinance covering a “Glare Nuisance”, telescope you can afford. The more aperture the more applicable to all objectionable existing lighting, (whenever photons of light you collect and the fainter detail around installed) was adopted in 2006. It applies to the following galaxies, nebula, and clusters you will realize. Over the categories. many years my telescopes grew in size from 3.5” (my first telescope) to 25” my largest aperture telescope of present. I’ve had a total of at least 75 telescopes in my lifetime, and I The Spectrogram 3 still own approximately 35 with 11 of them 6” or more in large monitor. I had to decide what drive system I would aperture. utilize; and I finally decided I would go with my 20” F/5 Obsession since it would be easier to use than my 25”. I Even with the Dobsonian revolution of cheaper mounts and would decide once I got some experience using the camera if bringing down the cost of a large telescope that a few I wanted to add a drive system to some of my other scopes. I decades ago would have only been available to astronomical decided to go with the Servo-Cat Go-To system and sky institutions or very wealthy individuals, images from commander digital setting circles.