The heart of Texas is big and bright, but the city lights are not necessarily the best thing about Austin. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Austin area and used to live there myself. Now I live about 50 miles northwest of Austin in Kingsland, near Horseshoe Bay in the hill country. Out here in Llano County, we are blessed with a beautiful dark sky at night and get to enjoy the stars which are quite nice indeed.
So, you might be asking, why would an outdoor lighting guy complain about too much light? The answer is quite simple really. I love good lighting, but I love responsible outdoor lighting even more. Most people tend to think that brighter is better. In my business I often see places where a 250 watt light fixture is used to illuminate a tree where I would more likely use a 12 watt LED fixture to do the same thing. Would my lighting be as bright? Probably not; but the tree would actually look just as good – or better – since it would not be such a garish over-kill of unnecessary lumens.
We are members of the International Dark Sky Association because, at NightScenes, we believe that helping to protect our dark skies, as well as our environment, is part of our responsibility to the earth and her residents. By lowering the lumen output of fixtures used in outdoor lighting, we diminish the amount of sky glow that is created. When we cut back on the wattage of the fixtures we use by converting to more efficient LED lighting, we save energy which reduces the need for fossil fuels.
Residential and commercial landscape lighting doesn’t actually contribute much to sky glow or light pollution, especially when it’s done with the night sky in mind. We don’t use high wattage, high lumen output fixtures in our outdoor lighting designs. Our outdoor lighting design philosophy is “less is more.” Our designs use lights strategically and efficiently instead of just blasting as many lumens as we can at an object or in a particular area.
We all need to understand that a little bit of light in the darkness goes a long way. Think about how far away you can see a car’s headlights. Consider the distance from which you can see a reflector along the highway, which is shining light back at you. Ponder how far away the moon is and how much light you get from it when it’s reflecting the light from the sun. Don’t you think you could easily see that sign along the road at night even if it had half as much light on it? Don’t you think you could see it just as well if the lights were shining down on it instead of up on it? Those two things alone would make an incredible impact on the night sky around Austin – and everywhere.
That’s my take on Austin and some of the city lights we all run into from time to time. To truly appreciate the stars at night, sometimes it’s good to step away from the bright lights and big energy consumption we see in metropolitan areas. I’d like to encourage everyone to use less light and less energy, and maybe you’ll have a better look at those stars where you live. You might even see better without those bright lights in your eyes!
If You’re in the greater Austin or Texas Hill Country area and you would like some dark sky friendly lighting, contact us here.
