I am a keen amateur astronomer (professionally trained) and I chose my present house some 17 years ago partly because its position—on the extreme edge of a small town—provided good, dark skies for astronomical observing.

  Nowadays I use a CCD camera attached to a 12-inch telescope and I concentrate mainly on measurement of asteroids, particularly on following up discoveries of potentially hazardous objects. Although the weather in Scotland means I don't make a very large contribution to the worldwide effort in this field, I do feel that such observations as I can make are of some significance, besides personal satisfaction.

  When the local council was installing new streetlights on this road, at my request they chose a "full cut-off" design, which is very satisfactory. There are still lights on neighbouring houses which can prove awkward but strategically-planted trees and hedges in my garden block most of these.

  The major problem in recent years comes from sports lighting. The University now has a floodlit sports unit half a mile away to the east, and there are also nearby golf practice facilities which have installed glaring floodlights. All of these cause considerable discomfort to passers-by, and also throw a significant amount of light into the sky. If the air is at all hazy, then I cannot make useful observations of any objects in the eastern sky.

  Meanwhile the local tennis-club has also installed new flood-lights but these are so well designed that they have no effect at all beyond the tennis-courts.

  I feel that there should be more control over the design of sports lighting, to enforce the best standards—to the benefit of the neighbourhood in general, and astronomers in particular.

24 April 2003