NEED TO KILL A STREET LAMP!!
dominique dierick
If it is only 1 lamp disturbing, why not ask for a switch so
you can turn it off when needed ?
Dominique
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Dominique Dierick
Digital Equipment Corporation, Brussels
die...@cygnusx1.bro.dec.com Phone : 32-2-729-75-48
die...@brsux0.bro.dec.com
Only speaking for myself here, not for Digital ...
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pat...@paf.gsfc.nasa.gov
: HI !
: I need help turning of a street lamp that is blocking
: my view fo Saturn
Might I suggest a .460 Weatherby Magnum w/500-grain round-
nose? :)
Seriously, though, you might try a well-focused beam of
light aimed at the sensor on top. I have had some luck
with this. Sometimes the light will stay off for ten
minutes.
You might also find out who is paying for the light.
Is it a community thing, or are you sharing the bill
with several other power company customers?
ED
Russell Meyer
: HI !
: I need help turning of a street lamp that is blocking
: my view fo Saturn and the sky around it. The damn thing would
: always turn off when it was cloudy at night when visibility
: was poor, but now that I'm haveing great clear night sky the
: damn thing won't shut off! Any on know how the photosensers
: can be trick into thinking its daylight outside? This is a
: city property lamp so I would hate to get out my BB-gun and
: try blowing it away. If it wasn't for this one lamp I would
: be able to see the night sky much better. Granted there are
: other street lamps in the neighborhood but this one is directly
: in my line of sight so to speak. The only other person that would
: be effected by this light is my next door neighbor and he is in
: bed before the damn things turns on anyway.
: Any help would be appreciated!
: Paul
--
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
| Russ Meyer | rme...@spd.dsccc.com |
| DSC Communications Corporation | |
| MS 121, 1000 Coit Rd, Plano, TX 75075 | (214) 519-5801 |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
Matt Spinetta
work nicely... Just be sure to master your marksmanship or you might miss
and cause some major damage to surrounding areas when it comes back down!
--
THE _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ _/_/ _/_/ /\ /ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
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_/ _/ |_| _/_/_/ _____/ _/ _/ - - <________|___> °°°°°°°
Jim Michael
light beam of some sort.
Garza John
try shining a "Q-Beam" ten bazillion candlepower spotlight on it.
If that fails, buy a shotgun.
Dark Skies,
-JG
James Hendrickson
: If this light is triggered by a photocell,
: try shining a "Q-Beam" ten bazillion candlepower spotlight on it.
: If that fails, buy a shotgun.
The whole point is to preserve a dark sky, so if you were to shine
a light on the photocell, you would want as low a profile as
possible.
Are the photocells on these things IR sensitive? If so, you could use an
IR laser (if you can get one) to shoot the thing out.
Jim
Greg Granville
>light beam of some sort.
I've tried that with a 5mw helium-neon. It doesn't work. Now maybe if you
had a 50w CO2 laser, you might have better luck :-)
Seriously, I've found the best thing to use is a high-powered 1M+
candlepower spotlight that plugs into the cigar lighter of your car. You can
find lots of them at most any department store for $20 or so. You may have
to try different angles and distances from the lamp till you find the
position that works.
=======================================================================
Greg Granville - N3SPE - (w)814-865-3310
Applied Research Lab - PSU ga...@psu.edu (h)814-339-7244
=======================================================================
Galen Watts
Open the access plate at the bottom of the pole and break the connection.
You could even install a switch so it's easier and safer the next time.
Galen, KF0YJ
Roger Pease
Turning off street lights at will:
I was able to do this once using a small HeNe laser directed at the photo cell
mounted on the top of the street light. The photocells faced east and west
so you need to be maybe 100 yards away on either the the east or west sides
of the light. I just kept the HeNe trained on it and it stayed off.
I don't think suggestions of vandalism directed at the light are appropriate.
Even if offered in jest... :^(
_Roger
---
- Roger M. Pease - /home on derange
"Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life.
If you happen to miss the one you care about, then
everything else in life becomes eerily easy." - Douglas Adams
Jack Frillman
Why go to all of this trouble? Just shine a flashlight on the photocell
that switches the light off during daylight hours.
Done it many of times.
--
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Jack Frillman | ^ " Carrots are devine you | Mead Data Central
ja...@meaddata.com | *\/|\ get a dozen for a dime, | P.O. Box 933
(513) 865-6800 | |/ it's magic! | Dayton, Oh 45401
EXT. 4812 | | -Bugs Bunny |
------------------+ / \ +------------------
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-- --
Kurt Hillig
I realize it's far less effective in terms of relieving agressive feelings
but a paint roller on a long pole can work wonders for this....
--
Dr. Kurt Hillig
Dept. of Chemistry I always tell the phone (313)747-2867
University of Michigan absolute truth X.500 khi...@umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055 as I see it. khi...@chem.lsa.umich.edu
Computers were invented to help people waste more time faster
Brainwave Surfer
> HI !
>
> I need help turning of a street lamp that is blocking
Paul, use a largish spotlight, not a floodlight, and hit the streetlamp
with the beam from the north side. that will do the trick... or a
low power laser...
Jim
/^^^\ \ / Jim Agnew | AG...@RUBY.VCU.EDU (Internet)
/ > || Neurosurgery, | AGNEW@VCUVAX (Bitnet)
/\_/ ' \ / MCV-VCU | This disc will self destruct in
/________________> Richmond, VA, USA | five seconds. Good luck, Jim..."
Jerry Gaffke
: Why go to all of this trouble? Just shine a flashlight on the photocell
: that switches the light off during daylight hours.
If the photocell is not properly placed, maybe you could arrange for a
mirror to be mounted above the light. Then shine your flashlight on
the mirror periodically.
jerryg
Jack Schmidling
>Seriously, I've found the best thing to use is a
high-powered 1M+ candlepower spotlight that plugs into the
cigar lighter of your car. You can find lots of them at most
any department store for $20 or so. You may have to try
different angles and distances from the lamp till you find
the position that works.
perfect ass of myself circling my streetlight with a 300,000
candle power Night Blaster to no avail. Scrutinizing the
light and sensor with binos brought me to the inevitable
conclusion that the lights around here have upward pointing
sensors and no amount of light from the ground, at any
angle, could have the slightest effect on the sensor.
Any more ideas?
js
Pierre Asselin
> I need help turning of a street lamp that is blocking
> my view fo Saturn
I heard stories of irate astronomers sighting a streetlight in a big
scope, removing the eyepiece, placing the flash of a camera at prime
focus, and shooting away. The streetlight allegedly shuts itself off,
for a few minutes anyway. I'll have to try it myself some day.
--
--Pierre Asselin, Santa Barbara, California
p...@verano.sba.ca.us
l...@rain.org
Doug McDonald
You are reduced to 2 possibilities:
1) a gun
2) a long pole, perhaps bamboo
2a) put bucket on pole and simply muffle the light. I did this
when I was a kid, but this pole was several feet shorter than modern
ones
2b) put little light bulb on pole and set it on the sensor, shutting
off light.
Doug McDonald
Martin Tom Brown
> This sounded too good to be true so last night I made a
> perfect ass of myself circling my streetlight with a 300,000
> candle power Night Blaster to no avail. Scrutinizing the
> light and sensor with binos brought me to the inevitable
> conclusion that the lights around here have upward pointing
> sensors and no amount of light from the ground, at any
> angle, could have the slightest effect on the sensor.
>
> Any more ideas?
>
I missed the early part of this thread, but one approach which has worked
for UK amateur astronomers was to approach the city lighting dept.
If you ask nicely (and show them a photo of what their light looks like
through your scope, and maybe a picture of the moon), you can usually get
some engineer interested enough to look at the problem for you.
Fixes I've seen include timeswitch to off @11.30pm and metal reflectors
on the sides of the lamp housing to prevent stray light hitting your site.
Legal and worth trying, you may have to pay for the mod tho.
Another specific fix for low-pressure, yellow sodium emission lights is
to get a Neodymium glass filter (slightly pink visually), which by chance
happens to magically absorb the main sodium-D lines. Works well for us.
Unfortunately, the new high pressure Na lamps are broad spectrum :-(
and no quick fix for Hg lamps either (but they are not common in UK).
Regards,
--
Martin Brown <mar...@nezumi.demon.co.uk> __
/^,,)__/
Jean Gilbert
on some street lamp there is a sensor on each lamp. If not you may
have to find it elsewhere (on an another lamp maybe). In that case
all the street lamps may shut off !. I'm not shure if it would work.
One reason for it may not work is that the lamp sensor look to the sky
(that could explain why it shuts off where there is cloudy : it sees the
city light reflecting on the clouds). In that case it would be difficult
to illuminate the sensor from groud. If you want it badly, you could
install a discrete reflector on the post over the lamp (and if the
street lamp is the kind made with a wood post). You could then use
a spot light or a laser as a swith by illimunating the reflector.
(there may be a time delay on the sensor, so you would have to be patient).
It's easier to say than to do , I know !
Tell me if it worked, jean
Mike Sorensen
|> From: ga...@email.cac.psu.edu (Greg Granville) |-(1)
|>
|> >Seriously, I've found the best thing to use is a
|> high-powered 1M+ candlepower spotlight that plugs into the
Although not to safe, and probibally illegal, instead of a high-powered 1M
spotlight, how-bout a high-powered M1 Carbine (or even a 22). After the city
workers come by to replace the bulb, and it somehow gets damaged again the next
day, they might get the picture.
(seriously, I don't recomend this in the city, but it does work!!!)
Mike Sorensen
Don't Tread on Me
Paulo Barros
Well, thanks for all the great responses to my street
lamp problem. I've tried the the 1M spotlight by no matter\
what angle I try the street lamp will not shut off. I'm
convinced that the sensor must point straight up. And I
will not be climbing the pole any time soon since there is\
one of those round transformers with about ten wires connected
to it! But any way thanks for all the help and you can probably
stop posting replys since the same Ideas are showing up
again and again, unlease of cousre its a completly original
idea.:) I think the safest response in my situation is the
one about using a utility light on a long pole and turning
it on once its over the sensor, I'll have to try it, thanks!
Thanks for all the help,
Paul
Joshua S Rodefer
hmmmm....this is coming from the depths of a not so perfect memory, but
i seem to recall Astronomy mag publishing something along the lines of
"how to beat the streetlamp in your backyard"....published perhaps in early
to mid 80s (a wild guess) ???
one neat thing they suggested was to make a black shroud and have a
pulley type system, so that you could hoist the shroud over the lamp
during your observation session, and then remove it afterwards.
no practical experience tho'
hope this helps
josh
*****
rode...@gold.tc.umn.edu
RECTOR
didn't want street lights exposing us- use a high-powered flashlight (we had
an old hand-held cop spotlight plugged into the cigarette lighter) and zap
the street light. Most street lights have a sensor on top to determine
whether or not its still day, so zapping the light temporarily makes it think
its daytime and it'll turn off- usually for a few minutes. So, I recommend
zapping it right before doing an observation. Of course, this'll limit your
exposure times...
Travis Rector
rec...@casa.colorado.edu
Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy
University of Colorado - Boulder
William Krosney
Through the grapevine a number of years ago, I heard of a fellow who used a
low-power laser to "zap" the light sensor on his neighborhood streetlight.
Worked wonderfully!
Has anyone ever heard of this trick, or tried it. I have a streetlight
that I wouldn't might temporarily disabling. It's also more quiet and
less messy than using a 12 gauge shotgun :-) .
....Bill
--
______________________________________________________________________
< kro...@cc.umanitoba.ca | >
< Bill Krosney | >
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mathew Marulla x3546
: Through the grapevine a number of years ago, I heard of a fellow who used a
: low-power laser to "zap" the light sensor on his neighborhood streetlight.
: Worked wonderfully!
: Has anyone ever heard of this trick, or tried it. I have a streetlight
: that I wouldn't might temporarily disabling. It's also more quiet and
: less messy than using a 12 gauge shotgun :-) .
I use a 5mW HeNe Laser (suplus from a cash register - $50 with
power supply) mounted on a photo tripod. Aim around til the light
goes off, then lock the tripod. When I'm done observing I shut
it down and the streetlight fires back up. No problem.
- Matt
Steve Noskowicz
> ...I heard of a fellow who used a
> low-power laser to "zap" the light sensor on his neighborhood streetlight...
>
> Has anyone ... tried it.
Yep. Tried it. It works. It may be hard to hit it if you're too
close. It appears that the sensor can't "see" down very well. We've done
it from about 300-500 feet away. I don't remember if I used the 1mw or the
5mw laser. It is rather difficult to hit because you are looking at a
bright light and there isn't much to give backscatter of the laser. But it
CAN be done.
--
It's difficult to make things idiot proof because
idiots are so damned ingenious.
Internet - The Information back roads of the future.
Leland Newsom
>In article <Noskowicz_Stev...@mac-y-58.cig.mot.com>,
>Noskowi...@macmail2.cig.mot.com (Steve Noskowicz) wrote:
>
>> William Krosney wrote:
>>
>> > ...I heard of a fellow who used a
>> > low-power laser to "zap" the light sensor on his neighborhood streetlight...
>> >
>> > Has anyone ... tried it.
>>
>> Yep. Tried it. It works. It may be hard to hit it if you're too
>> close. It appears that the sensor can't "see" down very well. We've done
>> it from about 300-500 feet away. I don't remember if I used the 1mw or the
>> 5mw laser. It is rather difficult to hit because you are looking at a
>> bright light and there isn't much to give backscatter of the laser. But it
>> CAN be done.
>
>transparencies)? Are they strong enough? How much do they cost?
>From my balcony, I could point such a device to a couple of lamps about
>50 m away (normally, I observe from the parking lot of the house, which
>is light polluted from some of these lamps). They are all coupled and
>switchon at the same time. I don't know whether the sensor is on one of
>the lamps, but if it is, I could shut down the whole street.
>
>--
You can also use a strong light (Q-BEAM spotlight) for the same effect.
>----------------------- ---------------------------------
> Dieter Kreuer ## ======== / die...@informatik.rwth-aachen.de
>Lehrstuhl Informatik IV __ /// /# / dieter%informatik.rwth-
> RWTH Aachen ## /// # # / aach...@uunet.uu.net
> D-52056 Aachen ## /// ##### /...!informatik.rwth-aachen.de!dieter
> Germany ==== # / PHONE: +49 241 80 21413
Dieter Kreuer
Noskowi...@macmail2.cig.mot.com (Steve Noskowicz) wrote:
> William Krosney wrote:
>
> > ...I heard of a fellow who used a
> > low-power laser to "zap" the light sensor on his neighborhood streetlight...
> >
> > Has anyone ... tried it.
>
> Yep. Tried it. It works. It may be hard to hit it if you're too
> close. It appears that the sensor can't "see" down very well. We've done
> it from about 300-500 feet away. I don't remember if I used the 1mw or the
> 5mw laser. It is rather difficult to hit because you are looking at a
> bright light and there isn't much to give backscatter of the laser. But it
> CAN be done.
What wattage do laser pointers have (to indicate things on slides and
transparencies)? Are they strong enough? How much do they cost?
From my balcony, I could point such a device to a couple of lamps about
50 m away (normally, I observe from the parking lot of the house, which
is light polluted from some of these lamps). They are all coupled and
switchon at the same time. I don't know whether the sensor is on one of
the lamps, but if it is, I could shut down the whole street.
--