Shields up -- no difference

Note that all pictures on this page are taken as to be representative of what your eye would see. No photo manipulation was used.

Well, the Milwaukee Rampage installed the Musco Level-8 spill and glare control visors. We figured that these would reduce the amount of light trespass to our observatory and the surrounding neighborhood. Well, we are very disappointed as these shields did nothing. These images were taken on Monday, June 17th, 2002 (unless noted).

Below is a picture of the Rampage lights after the shields were installed. I would say that there is not much difference from before. And notice the amount of glare from the lights on the right and these lights are pointed AWAY from us.

Below is an image of the lights on after the shields were installed. This picture was taken from our observatory field in Froemming Park through one of our telescopes. Notice that you can see still see heavy glare from these lights even though the shields are installed. Note that we had strong viginetting (a darkening as you get farther from the center of the photo) as we took this picture through a different scope.

Even though these lights are cutoff they are still pointing directly at us, i.e. horizontally and not down at the field. This is shown in the photographs below of the sides of the lights in the southeast corner and the northwest corner of the soccer field respectively. Note that only three lights in each bank are actually angled down at the field (located in the lower row).

Below we show the glare from the back side of the lights. As this is a clearer picture than before, we can tell that this is light reflecting off of the back of the reflectors from the light of a bulb of an adjacent light from the row above.

Let's see if the light trespass is any different. I would say not. Musco claimed that there would be a 95% reduction in light trespass. I would say that it is more like a 5% reduction. You can see an example of light trespass in the pictures below. The shadows that are cast are from these lights as you can see multiple shadows in the picture that was taken when it was darker. Notice that it is still twilight.

Below is another shadow picture. We had to show this one as this shows the amount of light that is thrown at us from the back of the light fixtures. Yes, that is right, only the light fixture that is pointed away from us is turned on.

This picture below shows the extent of the light trespass. Note that this picture was taken after the pictures above around 9:30. The sun set around 8:30 on that date and we are currently in nautical twilight at this time.

And here is another view showing our observatory.

Wehr Astronomical Society
www.wehrastro.org