The "Good Neighbor Outdoor Lighting" brochure

As a project begun in 1994, the NELPAG wrote and circulated a brochure for national distribution entitled Good Neighbor Outdoor Lighting, its primary author being Peter Talmage of Kennebunkport, Maine, who is an engineer and outdoor-lighting consultant. The brochure includes the first-ever listing of actual electric lights (and corresponding manufacturers) in the U.S.A. that are designed for full-cutoff night-time outdoor lighting, so that such artificially-produced light is pointed downward and not outward and upward. A version of this brochure is available at the IDA website.

Sky and Telescope has produced an edited version of the GNOL at their website; though their version omits the most novel part of the GNOL pamphlet -- namely, the list of good cutoff fixtures and their manufacturers -- they have produced a 2-page version that can be a useful hand-out. S&T has given good support to the light-pollution problem in recent years, and they deserve the support of all those interested in this problem.

Click here or here for diagrams showing both bad and good lighting sources (courtesy Philip Harrington from drawings by Peter Talmage, specifically for use in the brochure).

Bob Crelin has also supplied this image, which shows the Hoyts Cinema lot in Branford, CT, before and after the lights were shielded; these were semi-"cutoff" type fixtures with visible light source). The installed shielding dramatically improves visibility and visual comfort in the lot by reducing the glare from the viewer's line of sight. Glare and light trespass into the adjacent roadway and neighborhoods were dramatically minimized as well.