Effects of Light Pollution from Great Leighs Racecourse (UPDATED)

UPDATE (29/08/08) – additional photograph showing the immense glow created by the course from our “dark site” – which is about 20 miles away from the course. Clearly this is a much wider reaching problem than just the close surrounding area:

Here are a few photographs showing how bad the light pollution from the new racecourse is. The skyglow is so massive that it can be seen from several miles away. If it were a clear night, a large part of the sky would be blotted out, meaning the local community would be missing out on the night sky.

Light pollution from racecrouse seen from six miles away

The light pollution from the racecourse is so great it causes a false dawn

The glow from the course blots out the stars for the local community.

The intense glare from the course is alarming, lighting up the entire surrounding area. The clouds appear as they would in daylight.

The floodlighting is also a potential hazard to drivers using the road, as they shine directly into the path of cars.

This racecourse poses a threat to astronomy in this region. Clearly the racecourse plans need to be reassessed by the local councils – the lights should be illuminating the course NOT the rest of the surrounding area and sky.

Great Leighs Racecourse – please object to the latest planning application (UPDATED)

UPDATE (26/08/08): Supposedly due to a “testing” process, the floodlights were on well into the early hours on this morning – blasting 2MW of intense light energy into the skies which could be seen as far as 6 miles away (if not further).

Light pollution from racecourse at 1AM

UPDATE (22/08/08): Below is a photograph showing just how bad these lights are. Note that this photo was taken two miles away from the site. The plume of light pollution goes up to the zenith, illuminating the clouds.

Great Leighs Racecourse light pollution

This following has been brought to our attention. Light pollution is a major issue in our region and if we want there to be any dark sky in the area we need sites like the new racecourse to take a much, much more considered approach to large scale lighting. Please try to make a difference and let the council aware of the problem – it only takes a few minutes to send out an email.

What used to be the Essex Showground in the countryside is being turned into a forest of massive metal poles with the most intensive floodlighting imaginable. By day it is completely out of character and by night it is simply indescribable.

There are over 1000 lights proposed, consuming nearly 2 megawatts of power, supplied by a fossil fuel burning generator, adding to climate change. Whilst these lights are on they will be burning enough energy to completely power a small town. It flies in the face of energy saving efforts in Essex. The development is contrary to countryside policies and the Council’s own policies on sustainability.

Local residents are being badly disturbed, as can be imagined, and have started complaining following the first race night last week and 3 successive nights of being blasted by light for “testing”. The light pollution is extremely severe even from many miles away, ruining the night sky and with the potential to seriously disturb nocturnal wildlife. The 2004 press release from the course claiming that the lights would minimise light pollution was completely misleading.

The course is being built up – the current proposal is to use the lights 2 evenings a week, all evening – but more is planned to make it a “leisure destination” which means more traffic on the roads and more pressure for bigger roads linked to it such as the A120.

There is also a serious risk of causing road crashes as the Council has allowed the development to take place right next to the dual carriageway A131, and there is no screening at all from the lights.

The Council has made a dreadful planning decision. A racecourse for daytime use might have been OK, but this is specifically designed as substantially a night time course to generate TV coverage and betting and that has been allowed to override protection of the countryside and the environment.

A large number of objections to this latest application might make the Council reconsider its position.

Please write to Chelmsford Borough Council quoting application reference 08/00603/FUL and object to the latest application for Great Leighs Racecourse.

You can write to town.planning@chelmsford.gov.uk

How good is your seeing?

Ever wondered how good your seeing is? When it’s clear, how can you rate your seeing conditions?

This page will help you. It gives animated examples of the effect of seeing on a star image, based on the Pickering scale of rating atmospheric turbulence.

Observatory Imaging (Moon, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune)

It was exceptionally clear on on Thursday night at the observatory, so some of us took the chance to further improve our skills using the telescope and webcam. We’re starting to get better at better focussing the telescope (which can be troublesome at times) and gradually the images are increasing in clarity. Amazingly, we were also able to capture Uranus and Neptune, although they were quite low in the sky.

Here are the results. (full-size images are in the gallery)

The Moon:

Jupiter:

Uranus:

Neptune:

All images taken with the observatory telescope and camera (12″ Meade LX200 and Philips SPC900). They were processed using Registax 4 and Adobe Photoshop Elements. The Neptune and Uranus videos are raw from the camera and have not been processed.

Credit: Mark Searle & David Warrington

Cassini to image Enceladus

On Monday, the Cassini spacecraft will fly very close to the south pole of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, and will return the best images so far of that region.

Cassini discovered that Enceladus has plumes of water spurting up from deep inside the moon, indicating the presence of liquid water. This obviously makes Enceladus a very juicy target for Cassini, and the images should be spectacular.

Stay tuned to sites like the Cassini CICLOPS page, which will have the latest images in all their high-res glory.

Solar Eclipse (1st August 2008)

There was a partial solar eclipse visible from the UK on Friday morning, and a couple of us were at the observatory to view it. Using both white-light solar filters, H-alpha filtered telescope and solar projection, we were able to observe the phenomenon with success:

A total solar eclipse was visible along a narrow corridor starting from Canada, through Russia, to China – passing through populated places like Novosibirsk, Russia to more remote regions like the Gobi desert.The greatest eclipse duration, of roughly two and half minutes, was observed near the town of Nadym, Northern Siberia.

A partial eclipse could be seen from the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbra, including eastern North America, Asia and Europe. Here in the UK, obscuration of the Sun by the Moon ranged from 10% in the South to roughly 35% in Scotland.