Hi Poe



 PL> Did you look into the halogen downlights as I suggested to Patricia?

 BV> No. We had some installed though :)

 PL> What do you think of the light output? Not bad for 50W...



 RM> Gimme gas discharge any day. We have a 70W sodium that does the

 RM> whole backyard...



 PL> Didn't know your backyard was that small... [g,d&r]



 it's about 25m square, narrowed by various plants



 PL> What kind of money are we looking at?



Not cheap. This one and its starting gear is in a reflector housing

the same size as the 1500W halogen that I have tucked away.

Economical only if it will be used a *lot*, so its low running costs

will defray the purchase price.



 PL> I've seen some, and I didn't think they were that bright,



We have a 100W portaflood and a 150W halogen a few metres apart

that shine on the same area as the sodium, and together they're

about half as bright.



 PL> and their colour temp was way off.



True, but are we using these backyard lights to gaze upon artwork,

or maybe appreciate subtle colouring in our partner's makeup? I've

seen the same argument used against low pressure sodium (bright

orange, vs the white orange of high pressure sodium, which is what

I got) for street lights, and I can't understand it - I can see

another car or pedestrian in orange light as easily as in white

light, why do I need to know what colour it/he is?



I'm branching into light pollution issues here, so forgive me for a

bit of soapboxing: Low pressure sodium is least offensive to

telescopes, because its mostly monochrome output is easy to filter

out. Mercury, high pressure sodium, and their rellies, are much

harder to kill. Combine this with very poor shading of many exterior

lights (which has gotta hit hip pocket nerves somewhere, if your

shading is better then you can use lower power bulbs), and we end up

with the photo of the horizon from Siding Spring Observatory that

clearly shows the sky glow from both Newcastle and Sydney.



 sorry bout that...



Cheers



--- PPoint 1.88