Local authorities are coming under increasing pressure to limit light pollution & save energy mostly in England & Wales so far...hopefully Scotland will follow sooner rather than later!

Sounds like your son-in-law's department is starting to feel the pressure from the drive in this direction, most likely they are looking for examples of good & bad lighting, efficient & non-efficient....everyone wants to see & feel secure in the street..... but nobody likes the streetlight that shines through their bedroom window at night!

Their main interest will be in light throw for streetlight spacing though colour temperature is important too, orange sodium vapour street lighting is slowly being replaced with white mercury vapour lighting and fall into three main forms...

(Globe Lighting) Found in shopping streets & supermarket carparks for example, covers wide areas but horrible light pollution, they often have black caps on top to help prevent lighting upward.

(Semi Cut-Off) Most sodium & mercury vapour streetlights are this type, less uplighting with lots of sideways coverage, not great in preventing light pollution or shining in bedroom windows but local authorities love them as lights can be spaced further apart.

(Full Cut-Off) This is the best type of lighting as all the light is directed downwards...at what angle depends on the lamp housing/reflector but spacing between lights is usually closer than semi cut-off, this is the type of lighting local authorities should be installing but probably don't as the initial expense of installation may be higher.

Try & go out on a night during a little mist or fog to clearly demonstrate the light throw of each type.

Here is a link you may find helpful, although astronomy orientated the issues are the same, as well as the interactive skyglow map there is an interactive lighting type/lighting throw demonstration you might find usefull as well as plenty links at the bottom of the page to lighting types/regulations/issues.(copy & paste link into your browser)

http://www.need-less.org.uk/

PS
Make sure your son-in-law pushes in favour of Full Cut-Off!

Mike

For sale is my Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6 EX DG (Pentax fit) lens, I bought this lens new just on 7th Aug 2012 for £499 + £5.99 post.

After a total of 3 clear astrophotography testing nights along side my Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4 AL ED [IF] I have decided to stick with the Pentax for now so the Sigma is looking for a new owner...

Condition is MINT used only 3 times ...asking £395 + free in UK (RMSD)


Comes with...

Sigma Front and Rear caps
Sigma soft Case
Template to cut your own gelatin filters for rear filter holder
Boxed

Would prefer payment by direct bank transfer, paypal or cheque in that order...sent when funds clear...thanks for looking!


Pm me if interested...Mike

Thanks Paul, the auroral arc is visible on the north horizon fairly regalarly throughout the winter as far south as Northumberland & North Lake District Hills. I have seen 3 solar maximums around approx. 1980, 1990 & 2000, the big displays will push the auroral arc directly overhead as far south as Northumberland & Yorkshire.

Yes a tea cosy if you lik but an insulated hat or spare insulated jacket would do...though not anything recently worn as any persperation will freeze instantly to the camera body & lens.
You can also make your own temporary camera insulated /waterproof/ dust coats from second-hand walking jackets ..& trousers (for large telephoto lenses) bought in charity shops...just pop the sleeve onto your camera lens be it telephoto or other & cut to length...then trim the breast, neck, back of shoulder blade & under arm to produce a liftable flap that covers the camera but still allows access to the controls and also serves as a light hood & protection for LCD in bright conditions

The mount won't use too much battery power but I now carry a cheap DC battery meter from maplins for checking car battery charge after getting caught out at Laggan Bothy in the Cairngorms.
The grease on the worm/screw (if greased) that drives the Haig platform may coagulate with the cold causing slowing & tracking errors ..a common problem with some equatorial drives in low temperatures, the soution is grease with a low freezing point or greaseless as used in Antarctica.

Mike

Hi Paul

Sounds like an interesting expedition...

The K5 as you probably know has an advisory operating temperature range between -10 & +40 degrees C.

The cold on the batteries will drain the life from them fairly quickly, I would probably forget about a battery grip and invest in an extra two or three batteries keeping them warm in the pockets, a charcoal burning pocket warmer is also handy to help boost pocket warmth.

The other vulnerable item with cameras is their LCD which can slow or malfunction at low temperatures, if you want to keep the camera on the tripod throughout have an insulated bag or similar item to cover the camera & lens...always remember to replace the lens cap during longer periods of inactivity.

Your Haig Mount if a manual drive is ideal ...rather than motor driven for the reason of battery life as mentioned before.

Solar maximum is up to a year away so activity is still ramping up, with likely all sky auroras at that latitude your Haig Mount might have limited use with sky conditions so bright!

Mike

Ah well....sadly off home tomorrow though

Jeff
Currently on caravan holiday south of Carlisle throughout the past week so was just shooting from here. Had intended to go up on the moors on way to Keswick but with showers threatening I decided not.

Was using the K5 with 12-24mm lens wide open, 30sec exposures maximum as didn't want too much star trailing, also testing a Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-f5.6 EX DG lens, a bit slow wide open for meteors but will test properly on equatorial drive for general wide field astroimaging when I get back home.

Mike

Hi Jeff
Sadly this looks like the partial trail of a high altitude aircraft with regular flashes of the fuselage/wing beacon lights during the exposure.
Iridium communication satellites can also look like meteor trails ...they leave elliptical shaped trails over a few seconds.
A true meteor trail usually leaves a spear shaped trail with the thicker, brighter end pointing in the direction of travel.

Was out myself too but both bright meteors just happened before & after firing the shutter.....grrrrr.

Don't give up Jeff, there's other meteor showers before end of year.

Mike

Hello Ted

I think David has hit the nail on the head, the banding is certainly sensor noise, while there are plug-ins that do help in post processing there is no substitute for getting a good RAW image at the time.
Even with the latest DSLR sensors astroimagers are always battling with the old noise enemy, the solution to this is thermo-electric cooling of the sensor which is why CCD's (Charge Couple Devices) are used in astroimaging, these are really just specialist DSLR's with cooling, shutter,exposures etc. controlled from your laptop rather than on camera.

Recently the difference between CCD's & DSLR's has become more blurry as DSLR's can now be fitted with theremo-electric coolers too by third parties but unfortunately these modifications are only available with Canon cameras ...not Nikon or Pentax.

With my Pentax K5 I find optimum results around 800iso up to around 5mins.

What I would suggest is switch any noise reduction off, while this helps in properly exposed ambient images it's better to do any noise reduction at the computer. Also while low iso's are good in ambient light it's better to use higher iso's in deep sky imaging, try 400 & shorten the exposure times sligtly ...though 800 may be a little too high on an earlier camera.

Light pollution is becoming a real problem & does lower the overall contrast, try again from a slightly darker spot.

Hope this helps...


Mike

The standard Pentax CS-205 cable release as used with the Pentax K5 should work just fine.

Looks like the whole of UK cloudy tonight ...might as well zipp up those camera bags...again!

Mike