This panoramic image shows the Veneto plain at night as viewed from the Alps that surround the area. The image was taken by Leopoldo Dalla Gassa, the president of Venetostellato, an association that promotes dark skies in Veneto and was the engine pushing for the approval of the upgraded law. Image Credit: Dark Sky Awareness
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Regione Veneto in Italy once housed one of humanity’s greatest astronomers: Galileo Galilei. Acknowledging Galileo’s roots, laws from ten other regions and the International year of Astronomy, Regione Veneto has hereby decreed to fight light pollution even more relentlessly by recognizing the importance of “0% upward-directed flux.” Whilst Regione Veneto was the first Italian region to adopt light pollution laws 1997, one constituent from its laws needed an upgrade: “3% direct upward flux from luminarie.” As officials found out over the years, even having “3% direct upward flux from luminarie” still significantly hampered the surrounding dark skies. Incredible.

The constituents of the law:

* “it is enforced on both public and private outdoor lights;
* no direct light may escape upward from luminaires (maximum 0.49 cd/klm at or above the horizon);
* the maximum allowed luminance or illuminance level is the minimum given by security norms;
* the annual increase of electric energy must be kept under 1% of those in 2009;
* white lights are allowed in very limited cases (monuments, historic buildings, central streets with pedestrian traffic only);
* it has created a permanent observatory on light pollution that has members from the regional environmental agency, astronomical observatories, night sky
* protection associations, natural parks and a light pollution expert. The observatory main purpose is to find the most polluting light fixtures;
* the light installations should be designed by professional lighting technicians.”