Too many LED lights on with campers in RV parks.....

[Spidergawd]

Originally Posted by paddykern

I found a dimmer for our under awning LED light strip. Works great.
https://www.amazon.com/American-Tech..._d_rp_c_2_39_i

Oh cool! Thanks for this. Definitely worth a try.

[Coarsegold]

Originally Posted by gatorb8

last week in Alachua Fl
blinking and 10 ‘ away from neighbors

Wow did you ever make my point!!!

[mileshuff]

When you are at an RV park where people are crammed together there will ALWAYS be something to complain about as people like different things. Instead of trying to get everyone to do things that are not bothering to you, either learn to live with such things in a cramped park or find a park where you aren't parked on top of each other.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by mileshuff

When you are at an RV park where people are crammed together there will ALWAYS be something to complain about as people like different things. Instead of trying to get everyone to do things that are not bothering to you, either learn to live with such things in a cramped park or find a park where you aren't parked on top of each other.

That's kinda hard to do these days unless you can afford the big bucks for an RV Resort!

[NRR]

I have left the “outside door” light on by accident. I make a point of apologizing to those close to my camper.


Just me….

[Psneeld]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

That's kinda hard to do these days unless you can afford the big bucks for an RV Resort!

Or local or state parks with camping vice RV parks.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by NRR

I have left the “outside door” light on by accident. I make a point of apologizing to those close to my camper.


Just me….

We need more courteous people like you in our campgrounds!

[ScopesNC]

I don't mind the lights when in fact the person lighting up the campground at least turns them off when they take their arrss to bed. It's the ( insert bad words here ) ones who leave them on after going to bed I can't stand. No I do not like all the lights blaring away . I do however understand some people like them and enjoy using them. I get it that they want to blow off steam for the weekend or whatever. I wish they would make the led strings amber or yellow. That is not so bad. Yellow also attracts way fewer bugs than any other kind of light period. It's why farmers use them. No bugs. Why we can't have that today with LED strips I have no idea. Most RV's used to have amber out side lights. The warm glow of regular lights at night and the amber ones are so much better and much nicer to look at and they don't blare and blind you all over the campground like todays LED light strips do. I like the nice warm glow of the little ornament ones that hang from awnings. They look nice most the time.

Yepper I get it. Folks like them and think they are cool and look good. Well for me they don't. I wish they would fade away to the uncool side of life. In the mean time at least your helping keeping the bugs away from my site. I appreciate it.

[GypsyR]

In our current weekend campground, quiet time is also dark time. So here, I could care less how many lights anyone has because at 10 o'clock it's night lights and indoor lights only. We rode bikes in the dark and looked, everyone was complying and it was very pleasant. All campgrounds need this rule. "Riveredge" in Pigeon Forge.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by GypsyR

In our current weekend campground, quiet time is also dark time. So here, I could care less how many lights anyone has because at 10 o'clock it's night lights and indoor lights only. We rode bikes in the dark and looked, everyone was complying and it was very pleasant. All campgrounds need this rule. "Riveredge" in Pigeon Forge.

WOW! That's a unique campground for sure! Do they have any campground security lights or is the whole place pitch black after 10 PM?

[ScopesNC]

Night lights in campgrounds Read on.

Some of you may have seen this already. Its a good read on RV industry and the stupid lights they are putting on the units now.

https://www.rvtravel.com/national-pa...ndustry-light/

I have a added investment in no lights for personal reasons. I'm an amateur astronomer.

I have been one sense the mid 90's. Some of us started using video cameras back in the early 2000's. It has grown to incorporate much more sophisticated cameras now days. So folks just do long exposure images and some of us do quick exposures for instant views of the night skies. All this is done in color and you see it on monitors and TV.s Then a few of us started broadcasting these live images on line for the public to join in and chat with us as an out reach. Back in 2009 I built the very first dedicated web site to host astronomers as they shared their views from all around the world. People in the larger cities had to dig deep to find ways to do this with filters and it is still never as clean or as good as those from dark sky sites. The site is now owned by another person who keeps it going, but it still free for anyone to join in on the live broadcasting. You can chat and listen as they all talk as if it is one big star party.

Here is the site www.nightskiesnetwork.com while there may not always be someone live on there just check back once in a while you'll see them. Day or night.

I can't use a telescope in most parks now due to campers all using so many lights the darkness is just gone and the camera picks this light up making things almost impossible. The RV industry through ignorance has almost ruined our forest night skies.

It is why I can't stand all the led lights draped around the ground and campers now days.
Just my 0.02 cents worth.

[MSHappyCampers]

Just saw this and thought it was interesting!

https://www.rvtravel.com/national-pa...ndustry-light/

[astrnmrtom]

Fewer and fewer people are growing up away from lights, so using lots of lights while camping is normal. LED lighting gives more light for less power than incandescent bulbs and more for less usually leads to increased use. In the "old days" leaving on this amount of light all night would lead to a dead battery come morning. Not any more. Combine the two and campground lights have grown considerably.

I full time, and am an amateur astronomer so I have to work around this issue when I want to use my scopes. When arriving at a campground I'll wait until dark before choosing where I want to set-up my scope. If I'm lucky, I can find a spot where my RV blocks nearby lights and sometimes it's just not possible. We will even pick a site - if possible that puts us on the south end of the lot such as the place we are at now just outside of Bryce Canyon. It's put my scope in kinda' a weird spot, but this shielded me from the lights. Fortunately everyone's awning lights are facing away from me, which also helps. Attached is a photo of my rig and my scope mount sans telescope. If the Moon isn't going to be around I'll usually set it up and leave it there while we camp. I mount the scope when I'm ready to observe and take it off when I go to bed. In the photo it's on the south side of the rig because that gives me access to most of the sky as well as putting my rig between me and the rest of the campground. Boondocking in remote areas is where I've had my best skies for obvious reasons.

As some one who is completely comfortable in total darkness, and one only uses light when needed, and at levels only high enough to get the job done. I set-up and take down thousands of dollars worth of delicate equipment either in total darkness, or using only a dim red flashlight, and I almost never use a flashlight when walking around at night - that's what I'M used to doing. I really wish all this lighting didn't exist, or at the very least that people turned them off when they went to bed, but that is not the way of the world. I have to remind myself that while I'm here to enjoy dark skies, others are here to camp and have fun. I don't like all the excess lights, but such is the modern world.

Now from a human behavior standpoint I am fascinated how lighting as a recourse is viewed or used differently that many other things we use in our lives. We think nothing of leaving a light on all night when we don't need them, but wouldn't do the same with the kitchen faucet. I've seen people post that they leave the lights on for the times they may need to take the dogs out in the middle of the night, yet they wouldn't leave the water running in the bathroom sink all night incase they need to get a drink when they get up at 3am to pee. A light switch works just as well as a faucet handle, but why is one willing to turn one off and on when needed, but not the other? It's an interesting human behavior question I chalk it up to light being comforting, while darkness makes us all a little uncomfortable. Technology has allowed us to overcome millions of years of the fear of darkness, and economically, there's little incentive to turn the lights off when not needed. This type of comfort is cheap, so it's easy to let that subtle fear of the dark that many millions of years of evolution has burned into our brains control us. There are times it tickles me when I'm out in the middle of nowhere by myself using my scope in total darkness. The snap of a twig, or the rustle in the grass gets my attention. It's survival instinct kicking, in even though I say I'm NOT afraid of the dark - total darkness is a familiar place for me. Fortunately, I know I'm just as safe as I would be if it was the middle of a day, and I go back to the eyepiece of my scope - but again, I'm an outlier, I am used to the dark, and to me its almost as familiar as the day - to most people this is not the case.

If I could have one simple thought to leave people with, it would be to think of light like you would water in one way, music in another. Use it like you would water, only when you need it. And when you do, think of it like music, and try to consider others when you do. You might like a lot of light, but like good music, blasting your neighbors with it is not very considerate.

[GypsyR]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

WOW! That's a unique campground for sure! Do they have any campground security lights or is the whole place pitch black after 10 PM?

Not black. Lots of step lights and so forth around. Nice and muted. And of course the mandatory weird colored LED lights the factory puts on the front of fivers that can't ever be turned off. Apparently. I went ahead and turned off ALL my exterior lights. Enforcement of the rule seemed to be the honor system.

We trespassed, I mean visited, the neighboring campground a bit and they had NO security/streetlamp type lights at all. Now that one was dark. No idea what their rules were. Lighting after 10 seemed even more subdued there than ours. I was dark enough that our bicyclists with no head lights had to follow those with because they couldn't see speed bumps and such otherwise.