Moonlighting With The JEM-Liter

Try as hard as you can and you will find difficulty uncovering a person who has something bad to say about moonlight. The moon has been attributed to many qualities that have an effect on our daily lives. It is responsible for the pull of the tides, helps us navigate the open oceans, and provides subtle nighttime lighting during a good portion of each month. The Harvest moon allowed our ancestors the extra light by which to gather their crops while the "hunter" moon made gathering of other staples possible. Ships are launched on the extra high "moon" tides that occur with full moons. All of these benefits are brought to us courtesy of reflected sunlight. The intensity of full moonlight reflecting off of the Earths surface is measured at approximately 1/10 of a single footcandle, yet it is more than bright enough for us to accomplish the most important of outdoor tasks namely being able to get around safely and to communicate visibly with one another.

This soft reflected light has been called romantic, enchanting, mood setting, comforting, enhancing, and many other adjectives that all carry the same theme. That theme being of a very subtle light source that provides us with sharp distinct shadows. These shadows are what we know as the nighttime look. The long, soft shadows allow for the feeling of depth in the nighttime landscape and provide us with a comfort factor that is often under appreciated. Of the three basic lighting techniques of uplighting, downlighting, and backlighting, it is the favorite of lighting designers because it allows them to accomplish the following three most important features in outdoor landscape lighting.

Fill Lighting: A technique by which a designer "fills" in the dark voids created when focal points are lighted. The bright lights used to isolate a focal point create dark shadows that can be softened using some overhead light often in the same tree that is being uplighted. This technique also takes the eye and virtually walks it from focal point to focal point pulling the overall scene together.

Converse Lighting: Patios, decks, benches under pergolas, gazebos, etc. all offer an opportunity to simulate moonlight and provide an essential type of lighting called converse lighting or light to talk by. This can be done using low wattage lamps hung above these areas. Often designers will locate lamp sources above even a small amount of foliage or a single branch creating moving shadows below. This soft light allows people to see one another when conversing without glare or blinding light. When close to the ground in an overhead man-made structure non-focused soft lamps are often used to maintain this effect.

Traverse Lighting: Light to safely walk by is easily provided from above and looks very natural. You might suggest that 1/10 of a footcandle is not bright enough for many of your clients and we would agree. However, the technique utilized using lamps that provide between 2 and 5 footcandles on the ground will give the same effect only brighter. The moonlighting effect is often used to light driveways and walkways from nearby trees.

Due to the popularity of this technique by Nightscaping® contractors we have found a need to constantly provide fixtures that will hold lamps to create these effects. Our newest introduction, the JEM-Liter, is featured in this issue of Nightscaping's® Newsletter and is the result of much contractor feedback regards features and mechanics that they felt would expedite the installation and facilitate maintenance when working overhead. Please take a good look at the features and benefits of this highly functional yet classically profiled fixture detailed in this issue. They will be available at your distributors starting April 15th and we are confident they will not stay on the shelves once you have used one.

Rob DiSchino
National Sales Manager
Northeastern US
RDiSchino@Nightscaping.com