At the last City Council meeting an Ivins resident and astronomer, Ron Levandosky, spoke to the City Council about a problem he was having with a new streetlight. He asked if there could be another solution that would help him and still satisfy the City’s concerns about safety.
The Mayor, Chris Hart, expressed an interest in looking into Ron’s problem. Chuck Gillette, the City’s Public Works Director told the Mayor that he had already scheduled a nighttime spectrometer analysis of some streetlights with the Ivins Night Sky Initiative that included the streetlight in question.
So we took our new spectrometer out on Wednesday night with Chuck. It was the perfect night for taking measurements: no moon and no clouds. So, if you were out at midnight on Wednesday and saw two grown men sitting in the middle of the street with a tape measure, gadgets, and clipboards, that was us.
Our first stop that night was Ron’s “Cassiopeia Observatory” next to his home which he uses for astrophotography. Ron explained the problem he was having and Chuck asked about the impacts some potential solutions or work-arounds might have. Although there was no “instant” solution that night, it was a good start.
And this issue helped underscore why the spectrometer study we had planned for that night was important. Our goal was to look at how good of a job the City’s new streetlights and bollards did in providing sufficient light on the ground without creating undo glare and light trespass.
And we wanted to isolate the light pattern for bollards. The city is using these to light sidewalks. But they do provide road illumination. Our spectrometer study will tell us how well they illuminate streets in addition to sidewalks. That will help the City determine whether or not bollards could substitute for streetlights in some locations.
Chuck created a model showing the lighting pattern, or photometrics, for these lights a couple of weeks earlier. The model was based on manufacturer specifications, which is okay.
But we wanted to take “real world” measurements. That’s why we wound up sitting in the middle of the street at midnight. It will take a few weeks to process the results because of other projects and vacations getting in the way. But we’ll post the results once we have them. And we will provide updates of Ron’s situation as we learn more.
But we wanted to take “real world” measurements. That’s why we wound up sitting in the middle of the street at midnight.
It will take a few weeks to process the results because of other projects and vacations getting in the way. But we’ll post the results once we have them. And we will provide updates of Ron’s situation as we learn more.
Let us know if this Initiative is important to you, if you are willing to get involved, and what else you think we should be doing to improve, preserve, and protect the night skies in Ivins. We will get back to you as soon as possible.