Title: LEDs: The Future of Street Lighting and their Effect on Astronomy Authors: Britny N. Delp and Stephen M. Pompea
The project goal was to determine the most useful and dark-skies friendly LED lighting.
Using a Czerny-Turner spectrometer, 45 different types of outdoor lights were categorised. These spectra were used to determine how useful the light is for human vision and how dark skies friendly these lights are. Dark skies friendly lighting means that little to no light shines above a right angle to the light, and should emit as little as possible below 500nm (green) wavelengths to curb scattering. The following criterion were used in selecting the best source for urban and rural lighting: colour rendition measured by colour rendering index (CRI), percentage of light emitted under 500 nm, and luminous efficiency (lumens/watt).
