Dark Sky Friendly Lighting

Have you ever gone outside at night and noticed that the sky was filled with a bright, white light?  Dark Sky friendly lighting refers to outdoor lighting fixtures that are designed to minimize light pollution and reduce glare. Let’s take a closer look at what dark sky-compliant lighting is and why it’s important.

The goal of dark sky-compliant lighting is to reduce light pollution. Light pollution is when artificial lights interfere with your view of the night sky by emitting too much light into the atmosphere. This can be distracting and harmful to nocturnal animals, making dark sky compliant lighting an important factor in helping preserve our natural environment.  Hill Country neighborhoods often require homeowners to utilize dark sky compliant lighting.  And they recently have been cracking down on homeowners who don’t follow the rules.  We don’t want homeowners spending money on a lighting system that doesn’t meet the requirements and has to be removed down the line.

The technicians at Landscape Lighting Guru are EXPERTS in Dark Sky friendly fixtures and are members of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) .  The fixture options have exploded in recent years with many more options for dark sky friendly outdoor lighting fixtures.

There are several types of lighting that can be used to be dark sky compliant but neighborhoods often limit/ rule out completely up lighting in some way.  Adding a glare guard and low-wattage lamps can help make “up lighting” more dark sky friendly.  Often the key to being dark sky friendly is installing “down lighting”.  This down lighting can be used on the front façade of your home and from the trees.  When down lights are in the trees they have the moon light effect where you get a soft light onto the ground.  The down lights can also be used as spot lights on a particular feature like a spa or to address a safety concern like steps.