Edinburgh City Council

Edinburgh City Council plan to illuminate the capital’s skyline.

Professor John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland reckons that illuminating buildings such as Fettes College and the three spires of St Mary’s Cathedral at the West End would be an expensive mistake.

Senior councillors including Councillor Stuart Roy McIvor, who chaired the planning committee meeting defended the scheme, stating that city lighting has advanced tremendously and no longer results in creating upward pollution.

He added that although satellite maps show an increase in clusters of light over the years, he was convinced that the new proposal will not add to the problem. Professor Piazzi Smyth who set up the Nelson Monument time-ball and the One o’ Clock Gun had to cope with the same problem when he was based at the City Observatory on the Calton Hill.

Scotland’s second Astronomer Royal overcame the problem by transporting his scientific instruments by mule train to the top of a mountain in Tenerife.

We’ve received an e-mail from Beth Bax of the Fremantle Tour Guides who reports that the problem of obtaining new maroons or bangers from Sydney due to the carriage costs has been solved. Only a limited number could be stored in Perth but now the maroons are being stored with a new company.