Light pollution in rural UK. the good, bad, and the ugly.

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 1st July 2021 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Light Pollution – Introduction

I retain my passion for astronomy and dark skies.  These two items are inextricably linked, without good light design the beauty of a starry night sky is denied to everyone.  You do not need to be a physicist to appreciate the wonder of our starry heavens. 

When the sky is truly dark then we can see the stars, comets and planets which have fascinated mankind for centuries. 

It is not just the beauty of the skies which is wasted when light pollution becomes a problem, all that light that is scattering through the atmosphere is failing to light the streets and roads where it is actually wanted. That is a lot of energy going to waste!

Light pollution hides the stars from us.

Speaker: Dr. Chris Baddily

I am retired, currently renovating a new property ideal for astronomy. I still give public lectures on astrophysics, relativity and cosmology.

Hons. Physics BSc from Newcastle University doctorate from Imperial College London, on Infrared astronomy instrumentation. At Royal Observatory Edinburgh and worked on a multi-object spectrograph Univ. Manchester astronomy Dept. worked on a Fabry Perot interferometer, designed built and used infrared photometer systems.

At RSRE / DERA / QinetiQ senior scientist for very successful infrared camera for a US defence satellite.

Consultant physicist to the imaging modelling centre on imager performance modelling projects, unique camera performance predication programs.

Was an associate lecturer for the OU Astronomy course

Ran own course at WT.College for 11 years. Computer realisation of astrophysical phenomena- The Universe in 4D talk remains very popular. He formerly ran evening class courses.

Invitations to give talks all over the country.

He continues his work on astro-imaging, and builds instruments related to this.

Founder member of the Worcester Astronomical Society some 25 years running, still contributing. Webcam for astronomy imaging group, and the astro-spectral imaging group.

Committee member of the British Astronomical Association Campaign for Dark Skies, often speaking on light pollution issues. Written a mathematical model of skyglow linked to industry-standard luminaire photometry data, for comparing light pollution skyglow from different designs, and making many predictions. Influenced the Highways Agency. Presented at many European conferences. A summary of this Towards Understanding Skyglow, was published by the Institution of Lighting Engineers in 2007 as their official reference guide. Caused new thinking in road lighting design and standards. In 2008 this model was adopted by the North American lighting industry (IESNA). Recipient of the Galileo award for outstanding technical contributions to European Dark Skies.

Learn more about Dr. Chris Baddily