Marina Bay Sands

[vivid]

If you guys could remember, I wanted to get into the hobby last year, but after they announced such stuff and also more and more tall buildings in the city CBD and Marina Bay area, I decided to scrap the idea. My main obs would be nearly 100% in the city on top of my building's 50th storey rooftop, but better not.

The new buildings there, like the nearly completed Ocean Financial Centre, would be lit by LEDs. I think blue light is going to be very astronomy unfriendly, unfortunately there will be blue/magenta/similar wavelength lights.....ie don't need much power/intensity to do damage.

The lights at MBS are xenon spotlights (xenon coz it is short arc, with a good reflector and its pinpoint arc the beam can be shaped real good). They probably do more "damage" than the green Nd:YAG lasers (25W but ultra low divergence so more visible but affect a small part of the sky only), but then they do scan the lasers around so.... The lasers are also switched on for shorter durations (they cost much more than the spotlights).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owE6gRVW ... re=related

The most powerful ones go 10kW and 15kW.

Well, at least they are energy efficient, same range as fluorescents.

[cloud_cover]

For visual work you could still use a Deep-sky or UHC type filter to filter out the light pollution or narrowband e.g OIII filters if you have a larger scope.
But yeah, for imaging it'll probably be a bad idea except for narrowband.

[Airconvent]

These are all not going away, folks.
A friend of mine tells me Singapore super connection to the World means our citizens mobility are also high. In order to retain them and attract foreigners to come and sink their roots here, they need to make this city more vibrant, amongst other things. Vibrancy means lots of entertainment and the Arts, IR, many interesting places to rest and relax and a nice water front similar to Hong Kong. That last part means more colourful and active lighting including spot lights in he sky which make it photo-friendly. Definitely not astro friendly but hey, Astro has always been a low priority for the authorities since it does not generate income at all and we have too many ckouds all year round.

But again, if you are hardcore, you will still set up your scope as can be seen from some in Eunos and Tampines and later on, in some of the parks too!

[vivid]

Yeah man, vibrant city....

For visual work you could still use a Deep-sky or UHC type filter to filter out the light pollution or narrowband e.g OIII filters if you have a larger scope.
But yeah, for imaging it'll probably be a bad idea except for narrowband.

They are decorating the buildings with more and more RGB LEDs. There may come a time where the filters are not gonna help. There are really a lot of large condo projects due in the CBD, and what...5 years later Marina Bay extension and 16 years later Tg Pagar waterfront where lots of vibrant developments are gonna take place.

Now at least still using High Pressure Sodium for street lamps. Once they put in the LEDs when the tech matures even more (check out the spectral distribution, your filters ain't gonna work), gone case. Current LEDs are still not as efficient as the HPS in lm/W (they can easily do 150lm/W). So currently still ok.....esp the price of most high-tech LEDs are expensive.
But then they are factoring in maintainence procedures for LPS (5000 hrs) and also that HPS narrowband/somewhat monochromatic amber light is only ~ 40% as visually bright during night time vision (night time/low light scotopic vision) to the human retina as compared to LEDs, meaning that though lumens per watt HPS figures are high but to the eyes they are not as bright visually as our eyes are not that sensitive to that wavelength. One day HPS may just be gradually replaced as no matter what, LEDs better colour rendering (CRI - Colour Rendering Index) just makes things look better, very important for a vibrant city....that's why they changed Orchard Rd, Stamford Rd, Eu Tong Sen/New Bridge Rd/South Bridge and some North Bridge Rd to metal halides.
Well the main barrier usually boils down to $$$....but check out the new condos like Lumiere at Shenton, whole thing decked in blue LEDs.

Currently the most advanced/"best" is this.... as used in some high-end flashlights and streetlamps.

Cree XM-L
http://www.cree.com/products/xlamp_xml.asp

Luminus CSM-360-W (6500 lumens in a small package)
http://www.luminus.com/content1520

http://feilong.us/goods.php?id=41

[vivid]

Actually it has already happened lah....

http://www.bbeled.com/led-street-light/ ... re/01.html

http://www.ledinside.com/news_singapore_20110211

And of coz commercially for internal lighting there is Bugis street...which some of you might have noticed.

http://www.howelllighting.com/hl-b00101.html

[shirox]

luckily my west view is still alright on normal non cloudy days.
But the east... tsk tsk tsk.

[superiorstream]

Vibrant city?
1)Jam like shit everyday on the Road and Highway and if population shot to 7M or even 10M--due to migrant--(so much for the successful family planning)and with these,tons of dust thrown into the air.Nowadays,even after downpour,sky gets dusty in less than 24 hours.
2)Mrt also Jam like shit---to the extent that during one metup,after waiting past two trains,(for fear of OVERSTAY FINE)I push into a crowded train and my shoulder hit by the closing train door---how to bring scope to good location to observe?
3)Severe light pollution,as with such horizontal beam.If they use LED and such light has Ha or OIII component,then your filters will be USELESS.
;and perhaps someday,with a "vibrant" 10M population,we have to do 120 min narrow-band type photography even for the Sun.
4)With all those foreign workers and NO police patrol(years ago used to have one at 2am,one at 4am),even obs in my backyard make me feel unsave---lots of foreign worker living in my area--and I have to LOCK myself out when obing in my own backyard as I often see unknown figure walking in the UNLITED backlane at night at wee hours.
Very VIBRANT indeed and more to come as promised!!!!!

[cloud_cover]

But you're probably a multi-millionaire cos' of the land property you now own......
If not come to the suburbs lah. I still get good northern skies

[superiorstream]

Hi,Cloudcover
Wrong pal--I belong to the poorer of the community.House pass to me from parent who bought it at price of around s$15000-19000 only.I rather call it the hyper-inflation rate that jack up prices to over 1M;but irrelavant because we have to live somewhere right----and I think calling Singaporean who have a felling/love of the land millionaire and subjecting them to all kinds of heafty taxes/price height to drive them out to accomodate some rich foreigner is a WRONG move though unchallenged now.My love of my home is in par with my love of my country and that I think should be the spirit of the REAL LOCALLY BORN SINGAPOREAN,NOT someone too willing to sell out ones thing for profit.Thats why in spite of the exponential increase of light pollution around my home---since I was 3---I am unwilling to part with it.The sky around my house always bring back memories of good old days.