Street Lights....

OK, so say you had a "friend" that bought a new house. The house was in a pretty rural area for it's part of the country, but that there was this Street Light - see - that just so happens to be right outside the @#$#$%^& house. Now in his younger days my "friend" would just get out the air rifle or the .22 and show the light a thing or two - but alas, he no longer wishes to start a neighbor war - and with things being so PC these days - well you get the idea... Anyway, I've heard folks using laser pointers aimed at the little solar sensor on the light top and wondering if anyone has had such success - you know so I can let my "friend" know - before he does something rash - like take out the chain saw to the pole....

Adam
You could make a screen out of PVC pipe for the short term and a well placed, fast growing tree for the long term. Good small arms fire for immediate relief...well, just kidding of course, well, not really, I would never do such a thing.
Buck

Adam, I've actually caused them to go out for a few minutes while we were shooting fire works. One of my sons shot a roman candle at the light and it went out.

At the same time I've tried to cause one to go out by shining a super bright million candle power light at it and it did'nt do anything. It pretty much has to be lit from the top of the lamp.

I share his pain, mine went out and I never had it fixed but there are neighbors that have them especially one neighbor that has one so bright you could read the newspaper on that side of the yard. He jokes about it knowing how it bothers me.

I have another neighbor that has one about to burn out, it's bright for 5 minutes and dark for 2. This is his own personal light and it's the super white bright.

I think the only thing we can do is take a chainsaw and get rid of the lights but I don't think they allow telescopes in the jail with no outside viewing time. I guess it's back to the cemetary for me, nice and dark and unbelievably quiet-most times.
Best wishes, Darrell

Adam,
I have a 50mw class B green laser that I experimented with on the sensor for my outside house lights. It seems to have permanently burned the photo sensor out. I have a friend who has used his to shut down the city type power pole lights for a short period until they reset. I would not advise dong anything illegal or damaging others property.....
Dan

There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives. 8) 8) 8)

-Kevin in Indy

A friend made a cover out of a trash can, that is hung over the lamp like a shield. He has a long pole that he uses to hang it and remove it when finished. This shields he portion of the area while allowing the light to still function.

I once tried a carpenter's level red laser on the sensor of the street light that the village that I live in installed across the street from my house a few years ago. I attached the laser to a camera tripod. It took 45 seconds to hear a slight pop then the light slowly dimmed to off. After a few minutes I turned off the laser and about fifteen seconds later I heard another slight pop and the street light slowly brightened to full on. I did this as an experiment to see if it would work; however, even though it worked, I was always afraid of the liability and never used this method for observing. I once read about some teenagers who had stollen a stop sign after which a fatal automobile crash occured at that same intersection and the teenagers were later charged with third degree murder.

It doesn't matter any more because last winter my neighbor across the street had an electrical contractor install an outdoor lighting system with (as I calculate) at least 2,500 WATTS of lights shinning on his house and the whole neighborhood.

Jim

Sorry for getting on this so late, but I have a set-up with a red laser that temporarily kills the street light in front of our house.

Mine is a bit of a special case, because the north-facing window in the "hat" on top of the light is aimed at a cooperative neighbor's house that is situated uphill and across the street from my house. It takes a direct hit to trigger the photosensor, and the cobra-head reflector can block your line of sight into that tiny window unless you have a way of gaining some elevation for your laser pointer.

Another consideration is that you have to leave your laser on it continuously, or the street light comes back on within a minute. I have a Howie Glatter laser pointer holder attached to a spare finder scope that fits on a photo tripod. Even then, I have to position it on the flat roof of my neighbor's garage to get a clear view of the photosensor.

Hope that helps,
Hugh Bartlett

An old trick used by devious old cranks like myself to shut down HAM and CB operators that transmitted far beyond their legal power limits and interferred with TV and radio reception was to insert a straight pin with a pair of pliers into their coax transmission cable, shorting the hot central wire to the ground shield, and then nipping off the pin ends that stick out with flush cutting dykes. The small pin ends are VERY hard to spot visually, and you need an ohmmeter to verify that the not wire is shorted to ground. After several blown fuses and/or output stages in their radios, they finally get the message.

While power is off to street lights, if there are any external wires to the street light, similar shorting pins can be inserted into the wiring across hot and ground conductors, and then nipped off flush with the insulation. After several blown fuses and/or tripped breakers, and replacement of shorted wiring which far exceeds light buld replacement costs, the message may be gotten through. However, I'm not suggesting that you do this, only that the method actually works from a technical standpoint.

Metal foil placed in a crew type light socket, thus shorting out the socket, is also a possibility, but it is easily removed after taking out a light bulb and the light is back to working in no time. Shorts in wiring are MUCH harder to trace down without sophisticated tracing equipment, and you don't have to climb light poles to get to the wiring in some cases. Most metal light poles have internal wiring, so you may have to do a bit of digging at the base of the pole to get at the wiring, and it may then be in a metal conduit. Direct burial cable is subject to physical damage as it needs no sealed conduit in order to operate.

I don't understand the deal with street lights in a small rural community such as the one I live in. My Labrador/German Shepherd/Rottweiller doggie is a much better deterrent against criminals than a street light ever can be. I have a headlamp for seeing in the dark when I need to go outside, and it works much better than a street light for finding my way around and doing tasks outside. The dog is a much better companion around the telescope site, and he guards against wild animals or thugs much better than a light bulb ever could.

It's a short ride outside of town to a dark site, so no need to get radical with street light vandalism around here. Large cities are cloaked in a light dome, so taking out the closest street lights will do you little good for deep sky observation. The Baader Neodymium MSG filter may be your best bet. It works for me to an appreciable degree.