Defective LEDs with massively reduced service lives made it out of the factory and into streetlights around the world. If you ever see a purple street light, a failing LED module is the cause.
none like that around here. they’re all blindingly bright af along the main streets and downtown–probably 4-5x as many lamps in each fixture as actually needed, and going up and down hills they shine right in your eyes because they don’t have adequate shades keeping the light ‘down’.
residential areas still have the much easier-on-the-eyes sodium vapor lights, though–for now.
Where I live all street lights used to be low pressure sodium (very monochromatic yellow!) Due to a nearby observatory. Now to hell with everything! It’s LED lights everywhere. They’re strong and not diffused so all the light comes from a small area meaning instant after image… (Sigh)
Even worse, people now put LED lights on their outdoor house fixtures and all kinds of office buildings pointing UP. Goodbye night sky…
I know a guy that very was vocal against street lights in the 90’s.
He was/is an amateur astronomer that modified his rooftop to be an actual telescope and the street lamps were angled in a certain way that like 40% of the light produced by them was shinning to the sky, making his observations harder to perform.
He went to my school to warn about light pollution and also teach us about planets and all that good stuff.
I think he became frustrated and quitted because last time I saw anything about him he was all about rescuing dogs from the street. :/
We’ve still got a few of those around here. Most have been reported and replaced. But for a time, we had a whole stretch of freeway that was lit up purple. It as sweet
Defective LEDs with massively reduced service lives made it out of the factory and into streetlights around the world. If you ever see a purple street light, a failing LED module is the cause.
none like that around here. they’re all blindingly bright af along the main streets and downtown–probably 4-5x as many lamps in each fixture as actually needed, and going up and down hills they shine right in your eyes because they don’t have adequate shades keeping the light ‘down’.
residential areas still have the much easier-on-the-eyes sodium vapor lights, though–for now.
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Where I live all street lights used to be low pressure sodium (very monochromatic yellow!) Due to a nearby observatory. Now to hell with everything! It’s LED lights everywhere. They’re strong and not diffused so all the light comes from a small area meaning instant after image… (Sigh)
Even worse, people now put LED lights on their outdoor house fixtures and all kinds of office buildings pointing UP. Goodbye night sky…
Monochromatic isn’t easier on eyes.
I could definitely be under the wrong impression here, but aren’t LEDs monochromatic also?
I think they’re generally dichromatic (is that the word?). White LEDs are blue LEDs + a yellow florescent coating.
LEDs somehow have CRI 0.9, so they are unlikely to be just dichromatic. For comparasion monochromatic light has CRI 0.
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I know a guy that very was vocal against street lights in the 90’s.
He was/is an amateur astronomer that modified his rooftop to be an actual telescope and the street lamps were angled in a certain way that like 40% of the light produced by them was shinning to the sky, making his observations harder to perform.
He went to my school to warn about light pollution and also teach us about planets and all that good stuff.
I think he became frustrated and quitted because last time I saw anything about him he was all about rescuing dogs from the street. :/
We’ve still got a few of those around here. Most have been reported and replaced. But for a time, we had a whole stretch of freeway that was lit up purple. It as sweet
Same thing in my area, at one point a whole half mile of streetlights near my house was purple. It was cyberpunk as hell and I loved it.
Me too. I didn’t mind it and assumed it was intentional. A bit out of the ordinary, but different can be good.