Light Pollution Observations in Saint Petersburg, Russia

Since St. Petersburg is a large city with a population 6 million people the light pollution in Saint Petersburg is widespread and is officially considered to be moderate compared to the "low" amount of light pollution in smaller cities like Solon, Ohio (population only 22,000). However, if we look at a worldwide map of light pollution we can see that the Cleveland area in Ohio and the big city of Saint Petersburg both have a light pollution warning level red (which is a very high amount. Here are some screenshots comparing the two cities.)

As we can see this light pollution is an epidemic that reaches even the smallest cities in the world.

Today I want to talk only about Saint Petersburg. My Aunt's and Uncle's summer cottage is located an hour away from the city and they were supposed to see the phenomena of Aurora Borealis last week, but because of the expanse of light pollution they were robbed of that experience. Of course a big city cannot go without street lights; the city would become unsafe and dangerous, but the street lights could become more ecofriendly (some ecofriendly lights are even brighter than normal lights) The city has a lot of extra funding so money is not the problem when it comes to helping the environment and the astronomers that the country boasts about.

Let's look at some of the street lights:

The lights are shielded only on top in the old part of the city and in a lot of parts of the city there are just lightbulbs (unshielded) hanging around lighting up the street.

In other parts of the old city there are more shielded lamps like these few examples:

As you can see these street lights are completely shielded and help eliminate light pollution in some parts of the city.

If we look at the main highway in St. Petersburg called ZSD we can see the amount of light pollution caused by the lights on the highway (although, they are aesthetically pleasing).

As you can see if we shielded some of the lights on the highway or made them ecofriendly they would allow for less light pollution in the city.

I asked some friends to take some pictures of the lights in the city so hopefully next time I will be able to describe what can be done and what lights need to be replaced to lower light pollution level in the city.