I was disappointed to see “Night lights” featured in the Feb. 4 Home & Garden section, the same edition that tells us on the front page that an “Energy squeeze lurks in U.S.”
We in the U.S. waste one-third of our light by shining it upward or horizontally, where it illuminates nothing but the underbellies of birds or planes.
Writer Nina Koziol does caution in the last of her lighting tips that homeowners should “avoid having unshielded bright lights shining into your neighbor’s property.” But this is a blatant contradiction to what she has advocated in the article. Unless the house pictured has no neighbors within a half-mile, the unshielded “security” light at the entryway and the moonlights high in the locust tree will definitely shine into adjoining properties.
Lights positioned on the ground to shine upward onto trees do project into the sky and dim the neighbor’s view of the stars.
When I look out my window after dark, I do not see my reflection, as Ms. Koziol apparently does. I see the outline of trees against stars. I often see real moonlight on snow, rather than “moonlight on snow created with lights.” I consider these more beautiful than any artificially lighted nightscape that Ms. Koziol is describing.
And I am working to increase awareness here in Jo Daviess County that if we shield our lights and shine them only downward, we can keep this natural beauty of true moon-glow on the Earth. If we use lights only as needed for safety and security, we can preserve the view of the Milky Way overhead and the soft glow of stars on the landscape.
