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Comment by 42droids | Hacker News Reader

German side streets are fairly dark already. This change will affect ‘large’ polluters, eg. floodlights in car parks, outside store areas, brightly lit buildings, etc. It is a very welcomed change. In our neighbourhood ppl knowingly plant flowers and leave grass grow ‘wild’ to support insects.

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I’ve left about a third of my garden as a wild “meadow” and it has been full of flowers and bumblebees all summer. Even the municipality has left some lawns in the parks uncut for the benefit of wild flowers and bees. (Sweden btw)

Yes, German streets are quite dark. Some villages even close the lights at midnight.

This kind of make sense. Even in busy cities there are not many ppl walking around at night in Germany (less weekends). Most areas outside of the cities are completely dead at night. Also, general safety is very good. (At least where I have been so far)

This will be great for stargazing as well then!

As a budding stargazer I hope this dark-nights idea spreads to other countries.

Light pollution has the potential to get even worse with LED lighting which is no longer filterable like sodium lighting was.

I live in a fairly rural area in Germany and even if the nightsky is perfectly clear the cities in the distance cast a bright haze into the sky. They aren't that dark...

This reminds me of the movie Logan´s run all the time. The cites under their bubbles. Our's don't have the bubble over them, but look very similar from afar. All the illuminated haze. Fortunately I'm living right at the edge of one such large bubble, and can flee it within 30 minutes on a bicycle.

Yes. Light pollution leaks out pretty far away from the source. I don't know if there's any patch of land in Europe now where light pollution is zero. Maybe in a few places in Scandinavia.

Death Valley in California has pristine night skies. I cannot even begin to describe how different it is. Think - fine diamond dust on black velvet. There are stars everywhere you look. Amazing.

There are still some spots with near-zeron light pollution in Europe, but those are getting smaller.

The most preserved one is surely around the Pic du Midi in French pyrenees. It is actually an Dark Sky Reserve since 2013.

And according to this map¹, North of Scotland seems a good spot too, among others.

1 : https://avex-asso.org/dossiers/pl/europe-2016/ (in French, but the colors are pretty self-explanatory)

Yes, in this part of Portugal[1] it's almost zero. It's really really beautiful at night, it feels like in a dream.

https://www.visitportugal.com/en/node/73796

Even sometimes insanely dark. About five years ago I went to see Sanssouci in the evening in winter. It was so dark that I couldn't even see my hand, let alone the palace.

I do this too but I get bylaw visits from the city. Which cities?

Dresden. Don’t get me wrong the gardens are neat but ppl keep longer grass, bushes, lots of flowers. Don’t know much about the laws in Germany (only recently moved here) but I can see that ppl care about their environment.

OK thanks.

Search for wildflower seed bomb mix, you shouldn't get in trouble for this. My mom used to do this every year when I lived in Germany, looks pretty and zero maintenance.

Cool idea, i have a garden and i hate maintaining it anyway.

Yes, very cool idea.

These are great, but just remember to take care the seeds are for species indigenous to your region!

I don't think any German cities bans you from having wild gardens. Quite the opposite, some cities consider banning people from replacing front yards with gravel.

I love this. Of course it's different if you're in a dangerous neighborhood, but if you're not, dark streets punctuated by orbs of light from reasonably bright street lights are romantic, mysterious, sometimes soothing. It makes that evening stroll a bit more magical.

I’m the city I lived, the street lamps turned on when they sensed someone in the vicinity and turned off again after some time.

So it’s not actually dark where you are and walking, it’s just dark where no one is.

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