University of Toledo researchers report that blue light can cause macular degeneration: Science News
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Light pollution and radio interference at Vienna IAU
The International Astronomical Union’s Commission C.B7 on Protection of Existing and Potential Observatory Sites invites you to a two-day meeting at Kuffner Observatory in Vienna, August 24 and 26, 2018. No registration fee or IAU membership is required. Send poster titles and abstracts to Constance Walker (cwalker[at]noao.edu) by August 1, 2018.
Huron St project
The Huron Street renovation project will include “Dark Skies compliant” light fixtures — see peoplefriendlystreets.org: Design Concepts June 1, 2018, p. 63. The cobra lights will have a second, smaller cobra on the sidewalk side for pedestrians. Both are meant to be full cutoff.
Light pollution talk at Lowbrows
Sally Oey will speak at the University Lowbrow Astronomers monthly meeting on the topic of light pollution this Friday, May 18, 7:30 PM in G115 Angell Hall, University of Michigan.
ALAN session at AIA
The Zoological Lighting Institute will host a session on Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) at the American Institute of Architecture’s (AIA) annual convention in New York in June. There will be several topics discussed to place the issue of biodiversity-loss mitigation to the center of architectural sustainability, including bird collisions. This is a great step forward in transforming priorities in architectural sustainability.
Ann Arbor streetlight victory
The Kerrytown streetlight upgrades will adopt the version of the globes with the top halves blocked out. Specific globe models were already approved for this project, so the only options for modification were to look at different submodels from the manufacturer. We lucked out that one submodel is this more dark-sky-friendly version with internal “light lids”. Moreover, the design was also tweaked to allow lower wattage to reduce glare and save money. Many thanks to the City of Ann Arbor and Downtown Development Authority for taking the trouble to review and revise!
Baltimore stadium victory
In Feb 2017, the Baltimore Ravens came out with an upgrade design to add static pillars of white light to give a “civic gesture” to the stadium. Lights Out Baltimore, a group that monitors bird collisions, reached out to address how light pollution is a threat to birds. After three meetings, with the assistance of USFWS, the American Bird Conservancy, NYC Audubon, Audubon Maryland-DC, Cornell, and the MD Bird Conservation Partnership, the Ravens agreed on March 12, 2018 to remove the lights from the final design, instead of shutting them off at midnight (their first concession). This is in line with Cleveland’s work with the Browns and their findings on light pollution, which resulted in the Browns taking a proactive approach to bird safe nocturnal lighting. This is a monumental decision from a NFL team to change design that helps migratory birds.
International Dark Sky Week 2018
Welcome to our new website!
Mary Stewart Adams and Sally Oey will be doing light pollution demos at the Detroit Observatory Open House for Statewide Astronomy Night 8:30 – 10:30 PM.