The Boston Globe reported on July 26 that Gloucester has been awarded $240,000.00 to convert streetlights to LEDs; the move is reportedly expected to save the city $130,000.00 annually on its electric bill. This is great news, but only if we’re careful with the type of LEDs that we wind up with.LEDs are by nature rich in blue light. And shining blue light around at night is a terrible idea.The sky is blue in the daytime because blue light from the sun is scattered in the atmosphere most easily. This is, unfortunately, also true at night — the blue light component of streetlights is scattered in the atmosphere and produces sky glow, which blocks out the stars and causes glare. Glare is bad for drivers, and for birds and other living things that need the dark, and for other natural resources, including the night-time sky.
The more blue light, the fewer stars we can see. We could easily lose one of Cape Ann’s great tourist attractions, our rich night skies, in the transition to the wrong LEDs. Most folks never get to see the Milky Way, but we see it all the time; tourists are often quite surprised at the beauty of our night skies. But once the stars are gone, they’re gone. Go to Boston, for example, and look up.
The good news is that in addition to saving money, we can have more environmentally-friendly lighting by being smart about our choice of LEDs. Here’s how: the amount of blue light produced by streetlights is measured by color temperature. 4000k lighting has a lot of blue light mixed in; this is obvious to the eye. 3000k lighting or lower produces a warmer color and is not just more pleasing to the eye, but better for you, for nocturnal wildlife, and much better for our night time skies.
We encourage readers of GMG to write or call the folks who will be involved in choosing our new LED streetlights, and to ask them to choose lower glare, healthier, and more night-sky friendly 3000k lights over blue-light rich 4000k lighting.
The undersigned GAAC members, active astronomers in the area, sprinkled all over the North Shore and beyond, consider Cape Ann as the best viewing in New England. At least once a month we drag our telescopes, large and small, to the north east corner of Cape Ann for the incredible dark sky that we have here. GAAC shows the night sky to hundreds and hundreds of folks from here and away every year, and we’ve seen the night sky disappear in too many other locations. Let’s not let this happen to Cape Ann.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Paul, I believe it is Matt Coogan and his email address is mcoogan@gloucester-ma.gov.
GREAT POST. Thank you!!!
LikeLike
Paul,
Excellent post and beautiful shots and information on the LED’s and selection as it’s a special place for many and the nights BINGO! – So vast is the sky and never quite saw it in this manner the northern lights are special when you see them for sure and the flag is stay blowing in the wind on the end of the break wall 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
http://letras.mus.br/frank-sinatra/328562/
Sky, so vast is the sky, with far away clouds just wandering by,
Where do they go? Oh I don’t know, don’t know;
Wind that speaks to the leaves, telling stories that no one believes,
Stories of love belong to you and to me.
Oh, Dindi, if I only had words I would say all the beautiful
things that I see when you’re with me, Oh my Dindi.
Oh Dindi, like the song of the wind in the trees, that’s how my heart is
singing Dindi, Happy Dindi, When you’re with me.
I love you more each day, yes I do, yes I do;
I’d let you go away, if you take me with you.
Don’t you know, Dindi, I’d be running and searching for you like a river that
can’t find the sea, that would be me without you, my Dindi.
can’t find the sea that would be me without you Dindi.
Like a river that can’t find the sea, that would be me without you, my Dindi.
LikeLike
The city council is only accepting the grant. We are not choosing the type.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So who do we need to convince not to use the old nasty blue LED bulbs?
If you want to see what the older blue 4000K LEDs look like the Mass DOT installed them on the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge. Not only did they use the old bulbs but they tilted them so the light is aimed into the Annisquam marshes. Awful.
LikeLike
Doesn’t the City Council advise or council whoever is selecting the lights? I am going to a City Council meeting tonight about an unrelated issue and will try to find out who is purchasing the lights.
LikeLike
Thanks so much for posting this. I’m sharing it and dropping a line to the city councillors and the mayor. Hope this does the trick – what a beautiful resource we have above.
LikeLike
The more I read up on this the more the 4000K LEDs should really be avoided especially on Cape Ann. The blue glare confuses wildlife including waterfowl and migratory birds.
The 4000K are the old tech. All the bulb manufacturers are switching to 3000K but they really want to foist the 4000K onto an unsuspecting city or two because they are overstocked in them and no one wants them.
The manufacturers say they are more efficient and put out more light but that is not true. They put out more blue which is glaring and shuts down your night vision. So in the end you actually see less than with the 3000K. This is especially true of older drivers who are more easily blinded by the blue.
You know that annoying souped up car that just went by with the illegal headlamps? Kind of blue and glaring? That could be the entire city of Gloucester!
Insist on 3000K. We could be stuck for ten years with these glaring bulbs they are trying to get rid of.
[EDIT] read my next comment. It isn’t ten years but twenty that we will be stuck with the wrong lights! Until 2036!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just a little more info. These LED lights last twenty years! That is great news for saving money but really lousy news if Gloucester is talked into the 4000K LED lights by National Grid. National Grid is not the one to be giving advice about which ones to use. If they are overstocked in the old technology 4000K you know which ones they are going to want to install in Gloucester.
So we could be looking at blue glare, fewer stars, no Milky Way from 2016 to 2036! Think about that one. Find out who is deciding which LEDs Gloucester is getting and convince them that that the 3000K LEDs are the way to go. If it is National Grid, the owners of the old bulbs that we are listening to then Gloucester has the potential of being screwed for twenty years.
LikeLike