[Darksky]Re: regulations for the Czech law

[Jan Hollan]

Herman, chvala ti puno za komentarije. 

> Many thanks for your translated draft regulation. I did understand it 
> almost completely. The only paragraph I badly understand is this one:
> 
>  > § 2 Areas of a special protection
>  >(3)
>  >It is upon the subject, for whose interest the protected area has been 
>  >declared by the Government (or Ministry), to announce this fact to the 
>  >concerned municipalities and operators of light sources.
> 
> Perhaps, it would be worth to make it more decent.

	
Znaci da je sav rad na samoj zvjezdarnici i da drzavne vlasti nedobiju
puno posla. Hocu razmisljati kako to bolje napisati na engleskom.
 
(I began to write my almost-Croatian, but the discussion is interesting
perhaps even to people who don't understand it, so an English translation:
 
 It should mean that all the work load is put to the observatory, no more
labour is demanded from the administration. I'll thing about how to
express it better. Perhaps a footnote would do. )
 
>  >§ 3 Further dispositions applying to the protected areas
>  >(2)
>  >An exception is granted to existing luminaires, whose replacement is 
>  >not planned within four years, and whose adaptation in such a way,....
> 
> Lombardy law gives an exemption to luminaries, whose replacement is 
> planned within four years........... Seems like you have to omit the 
> word -not-. Would be more logical I think.

To je u stvari tako. U teceniju cetirech godina sve mora biti u redu kako
je moguce. Ali kad nije moguce, jer nema novca, jeftina adaptacija
da bi uz nebo islo ne vise 15 cd / klm je dozvoljena. U Art. 9 odsek 5
engleskog texta bill.htm je pisano:

(I really meant that. In course of four years everything should be in
order, as far as possible. Where not possible, due to lack of money, a
cheap adaptation so that no more light goes upward than 15 cd/klm is
allowed. In the pre-March 2000 English bill.htm Art. 9 paragraph 5 the
sentende reads:)

   Exemption are granted, according to specific
   indications agreed between the municipality and the competent
   astronomical observatories, to internal, not polluting, sources of
   light, for those with emission not exceeding 1500 lumen each (up to
   three centers with one single point of light), for those of temporary
   use that are shut off within 20.00 hours in the period of regular time
   and within 22.00 hours in the period of day-light saving time, for
   those which substitution is planned within four years from coming into
   force of the present law. 

Kaze mi se, da u Lombardiji se razuje da svi moraju u onim zonama poceti
adaptirati sve odmah, s iskljucenijem toga, sta planriraju izmjeniti do
cetirech godina. Moj text je manje strogi: nekad u teceniju cetirech
godina moraju biti sva najgorja svjetla adaptirana.

(It seems to me that in Lombardy everybody is recommended to begin with
the adaptation of polluting lighting in the protected zones at once, but
those lamps whose replacement is planned within four years can be left
intact meanwhile. My text is even less strict: sometimes within those four
years the most horrible lamps should be adapted.)

>  >Appendix: List of the protected areas acc. to § 2 Art. 2
>  >
>  >    * Observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of
>  >      Sciences of Czech Republic, Ondrejov
>  >    * Observatory of the Obs. and Planetarium in Ceské Budejovice, Klet
> 
> Please let me know why you don't require areas with specific radius 
> around the proffesional observatories?

This was a gross error, it happens to me quite often: I'd hit F6 instead
or F5 in my Midnight Commander editor, and so moved the text from the
major observatories to small (and then changed 10 km to 1 km) instead of
just copying it... Thank you very much for noticing it! 

> Also I'm curious why you plan only 1km radius around the public 
> observatories? Are they mostly in urban areas where it is difficult or
> nearly impossible to implement larger protection?

Yes, mostly they are in or at the margin of the villages and towns. The
costs for the initial pilot areas should be kept low. But this is just a
proposal: the real areas which will come into the Statutory Order are
still a subject of negotiations among the observatories and the concerned
municipalities, they may be smaller or larger, non-circular etc. The real
necessity is to exclude glare from nearby lamps which spoils the
adaptation of the eyes in general or even directly intervenes with e.g.
the setting planets.

> We have also a number of school and society observatories that are
> in or close to densly populated areas. We have not yet a solution on
> how to give them at least some minimum protection. Maybe a 1km area
> might be some solution ...

Any small protection area is a blessing, to avoid glare and even diminish
sky luminance when the air is not perfectly clean and there is some strong
skyward source nearby. And each such area should serve as an example
convincing everybody that this is a way how to illuminate outdoor spaces
at night -- low or no glare, no light into windows, safe and pleasant
night environment.
 
> Best wishes,
>                Herman

Thank you very much for the help and discussion,
 together we'll save the night at last

 Jenik

> 
> 
> 
> Jan Hollan wrote:
> > Dear friends,
> > 
> > I've translated the text of the draft for the implementing regulations
> > demanded by the Clean Air Act of the Czech Republic regarding light
> > pollution.
> > 
> > When doing that, I've noticed some imperfections in the Czech draft --
> > e.g., the certification of the fixture as a non-polluting one is to
> > be included in the technical specifications rather then on the fixture
> > itself (I've misinterpreted the Italian text...).
> > 
> > Also, the draft is evidently to be amended by the demand of maximum
> > luminance of the lit surfaces, when there is no safety standard
> > demanding more: with the 1 cd/m2 limit of average luminance caused by
> > artificial lighting, as in the best Italian rules. 
> > 
> > The text of the draft is available in the
> >   http://amper.ped.muni.cz/light/law  
> >  directory as order_draft.* -- it is a rather bad English, just verbatim
> > copying the Czech text. In many cases the meaning should be the same as in
> > the Italian proposal for the EU, see 
> >   http://www.vialattea.net/cielobuio/europe/bill.htm
> > 
> > The draft is very minimalistic. Perhaps it has to be amended to work in
> > reality. Any advice is much appreciated. 
> > 
> > clean skies,
> >  Jenik Hollan
> > 
> > PS.
> >  In Czech, it is available from 
> >   http://svetlo.astro.cz/zakon/
> >  or in the directory
> >   http://amper.ped.muni.cz/light/zakon_oo/ 
> >  as v2_zo_sv.* -- moreover, the reasoning behind each rule is available
> > as why_fs.* (there is no English version of it yet).
> >