The issue of unnecessary (and costly) wastage of light (termed 'light pollution') into the night sky is considered to be so important that the following information is given priority on this web page. This is not being vexatious since it affects the serious scientific, educational and recreational observation of the night sky - the knowledge derived from astronomy over the last 400 years has contributed immensely to our current technological lifestyle. Surely it is not asking too much for our beautiful night skies to be protected - especially if this can actually save lighting costs. And, far from being vexatious, we are freely offering solutions (which a consultant would otherwise charge heavily for) which could provide more artistic illumination of some of our modern edifices.

If its lighting were arranged to minimise light pollution so that not much light escaped into the sky, Melbourne's new Bolte Bridge might look like the image below:

The above image has been manipulated to show what a better low-light-pollution lighting scheme might look like.

Instead, the May 1999 photo at the right is exposed so as to indicate how the naked eye sees the beams of light extending into the sky above the pylons.
(Our eyes cover a fantastic range of brightness. But photos will either expose the bridge and miss the light beams or, to capture the beams, will overexpose the bridge. The bridge is much less our concern than the beams wastefully extending into the sky.)

The photo on the right is actually underexposed in terms of photographing faint stars, so the picture gives an idea of how brilliant the towers and beams are in a relative sense.

The total peak intensity in the beam from each tower is estimated to be in the order of tens of millions of candelas. (Roughly, 1 candela is about the intensity of an ordinary candle.)

The image on the right indicates why the present lighting arrangements can interfere with astronomical observations from Melbourne and surrounding areas (40km or more away). It was captured just after a rain shower. This is indicated by the bluish Rayleigh scattering from the beams- the air must have been clean for the blue colour to be so obvious. There has been no attempt to mislead by image manipulation or by waiting for dusty air or fog which would have made the beams brighter and also whiter. If and when such conditions do occur, sky glow caused by the beams would have a correspondingly worse effect on visibility of faint astronomical objects.

If you think that the Bolte Bridge lighting is obtrusive and should be made less so, please telephone, mail or email a brief statement to relevant authorities or to this page. Of course, you may also contact your local member of parliament or others interested or concerned.

What also seems sad is that the upwardly directed light from the base of the pylons actually highlights their surface irregularities. Masked lighting from different angles could, at once, answer our objections, save costs, and more smoothly and elegantly illuminate the pylons.

The photo below was taken in cloud-free skies at 11pm on June 19 from the western bypass, about 11-12 km from the Bolte Bridge. The camera (with 400ASA film) was placed on the car roof and the shutter triggered and held for 5 seconds by hand (hence wobbles).