The image is from a Japanese animation - You're Under Arrest (1991) - which they often drew from real-life landscapes. This is how a city should look at night!



Like many Japanese cities, the night lights of Tokyo, Japan, have a blue-green glow that comes from mercury vapor lighting. Image ISS016-E-27586 was taken on February 5, 2008. Notice the ugly orange sodium vapor lamps at the edge of Tokyo bay (newer developments). [Large version: ftp://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/EFS_highres_ISS016_ISS016-E-27586.JPG]

HPS (and LPS) were the worst thing that ever happened to street lighting. If you go to Japan you can still see lots of nice clear mercury street lights.

Yah, too bad those gonna be replace sooner or later. They will start replacing all city owned MV streetlights in this summer in here Rovaniemi. Im will be missing that green-blue color of MV. I generally dont have anything against other type of lamps, but I just cant imagine my home street with orange light. Because I dont think they would install MH so its probably will be HPS. snowy streets in winter doesnt look same in yellow light. Its just somehow so much more winter-like when its lit by MV.

ByTheWay are you Japanese? Im just wondering because Im some sort of "Japan fan". And judging for you message you have at least visit in japan.

I'm a Japan fan too. Watch anime all the time. So much anime (especially '80s and '90s) has night scenes with mercury-vapor illumination.

By the time Japan changes those mercury vapor lamps, they will be replacing them with LEDs, which themselves look similar (high color temperature). In other words, they will be bypassing the ugly HPS lamps :)

The night is naturally illuminated by moon and starlight, the dim bluish-white glow that is perfect for snow. Sodium is ugly. It looks just like it tastes in my food: salty, dehydrating, dried-up.

How ready-to-use technic are those led streetlights? I have used some RGB par-spotlights wich used leds. those were good because you did not need any color filter and chancing color was easy but the amount of light was not so good compared to normal par-lamp and you could not get normal white light.

In here Rovaniemi(wich is located in Finland) distance between streetlight poles is pretty long especially in older instalment so I was just wondering will led streetlight be bright enought to light as much as old MV fixtures. If they need change poles too cost will rise compared to just change fixtures.

I have never visited in Japan but it would be cool to travel there. I hope that someday I get the chance to see those clear mercs(I do own one but have never seen anyone to use them in Finland so its kind of rare in here)

this is Excactly how a City Should Look at night!

HPS (and LPS) were the worst thing that ever happened to street lighting. If you go to Japan you can still see lots of nice clear mercury street lights.

I wouldn't go that far. I love the glow of LPS, it is by far my most favourite light source. Yes I love MV (and HPS) as well, but nothing beats SOX to me

We still have a little MV around here, but only on private property (car parks etc.) - most of the street lighting here is now the awful LED, although pockets of MH and HPS remain, for how much longer we can only guess.

I like BOTH mercury and HPS streetlights.I don't like the cold blue LED streetlights.The warm color ones are OK.The LED blue just doesn't replicate mercury vapor as well.Different spectrum.

I wouldn't go that far. I love the glow of LPS, it is by far my most favourite light source. Yes I love MV (and HPS) as well, but nothing beats SOX to me

Something to keep in mind is that this was before LED streetlighting was a thing. People hated HPS back then.

I remembered how I hated HPS lighting compared to MV lighting in my childhood, because I loved the cold bluish glow from MV compared to the orange light of HPS, and the longer hot restrike of MV lamps which made them more impressive during power outages compared to HPS lamps which usually have much shorter hot restrike. Also, the impressive red colour of MV lamps during ignition, which isn't exists in HPS lamps.
However I used to the HPS lighting after discovering it is more efficient and have more lumens than MV lighting. But it was before I became aware about lighting pollution. I loved strong lighting during my teenage, and this was expressed by my use of 160W SBMV lamps of Osram and Philips in my room.

I love all forms of street lighting, with the notable exception of LED.

LPS/SOX is my favourite though, with MV a close second, although HPS pokes its head above the parapet sometimes

Unfortunately not much MV here either other than 'yardblasters'. But some cobras and NEMA style lights continue to run. Thankfully HPS is still prevalent.

I've always loved the look of MV. When I was young everything in my area was MV, but then it started getting changed out to HPS, I hated the orange colored light. (I no longer do though). Sadly SOX was never really used here.

I guess now I'm witnessing the same thing happening to HPS with LED, that I did back all those years ago with MV...
This time though I don't hate the color of LED though (but some of the fixtures are pretty ugly when viewed in daylight hours .lol. not to mention some are glare-bombs at night )

I wonder what people will be saying when the 'next generation' of lighting comes out that replaces LED's ??
Assuming a similar length of time, Its too far off, I won't be around to find out.