February 2003 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Light pollution
by Patrick Wiggins 31 Jan '03

31 Jan '03

Not to downplay our defeat in the senate on Tuesday, but I was out doing some fun flying last night and am happy to report that despite an awful lot of disgusting, wasteful lighting, I saw a number of good examples as well. Interestingly, one of the best was the perimeter lighting at the prison. As seen from above, the light fixtures were invisible. No sign of the light source at all. Just a pleasant glow on the ground below. I guess officials there know about the bad guys hiding in glare. Other good spots included the newer car dealerships. I think most of the folks on this list will agree most car places are over lit but at least the excess light goes down. No sign of it from above. And there were a lot of nice residential street lights and the lights in the center of the freeway (I-15) shine down only. And have you noticed how many of the direction highway signs (as opposed to the commercial billboards) have lights that shine down onto the sign and not up into the sky? Makes me wonder about the testimony from one of the opposition the other day that said the law required billboard lights to shine up. So, while we do have a long road ahead there is a shielded light at the end of the tunnel. Ok, we're off to see the shuttle. (I think there's a song in there somewhere...) Patrick p.s. If any of you would like to do a night flight, I've found a plane I can rent for $40 an hour. I'll pay half.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Shuttle reentry update - final (probably)
by stargaze＠attbi.com 31 Jan '03

31 Jan '03

Patrick: Myself and two others are heading down about Midnight. We are planning on going to the same exit you are. If you hear any bad news about the flight would you please let me know. My cell is 801-541-1858. This should be cool. I'm excited. I hope it all plays out well. Thanks....Steve Nielsen > I just heard from my contact at NASA for what will probably be the last time > before tomorrow morning's reentry so this will probably be my last pre-reentry > post on the subject. > > Time of the pass has been moved back one minute (big change!) so now we're > looking at 6:56. > > Weather continues to look good (despite what I'm seeing out the window here in > Stansbury at the moment). Flight service (Brent, you listening) says to expect > high winds and a high and broken ceiling with lots of holes to watch the show > through. > > And, Brent, if you find yourself passing over Leeds (113 21.48 W, 37 14.22 N or > about 16 SM out on the St. George 38 degree radial) we'll be monitoring 122.8. > Call sign "Leeds unicom". <g> > > Patrick :-) > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

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Shuttle reentry update - final (probably)
by Patrick Wiggins 31 Jan '03

31 Jan '03

I just heard from my contact at NASA for what will probably be the last time before tomorrow morning's reentry so this will probably be my last pre-reentry post on the subject. Time of the pass has been moved back one minute (big change!) so now we're looking at 6:56. Weather continues to look good (despite what I'm seeing out the window here in Stansbury at the moment). Flight service (Brent, you listening) says to expect high winds and a high and broken ceiling with lots of holes to watch the show through. And, Brent, if you find yourself passing over Leeds (113 21.48 W, 37 14.22 N or about 16 SM out on the St. George 38 degree radial) we'll be monitoring 122.8. Call sign "Leeds unicom". <g> Patrick :-)

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