are tungsten lights becoming obsolete?

[Pultzar]

i'm also a big fan of the warm yellowish tungsten glow, As someone above stated they do have a sexy look about them. I did leds on a x-mas tree this year, and it was horrible to look at, nothing but a cold lifeless look to it, I will be going back to the old style lights next year, even if they cost a few more cents to run.

The "wasted" power just goes to heat your house which I imagine you are doing anyway

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I think about this sort of thing all the time, as the orange glow of sodium vapor streetlights give way to the antiseptic blue blast of LED's. That will start to change the look of night exteriors at some point soon, whether shot under existing units or recreated/augmented versions of same. It's not the worst thing in the world but it's not exactly thrilling.

Since you list 'Los Angeles' as your location, part of the 'yellow sodium' light selection was due in part to the several observatories which were still active into the 'recent times'. However, I believe Mt Wilson and Mt Palomar are both in either retirement stage, or soon to be so...

The choice of Sodium, especially low pressure sodium, was so that specific wave length could be filtered out, leaving the rest of the visible spectrum somewhat untouched...

With the observatories being retired, 'white', or at least broader spectrum lights are now being selected.

(There are also some regulations on 'pointing down' vs 'omni directionals' that may still be in effect.).

The other reason for Sodium is the efficiency of light production... despite the narrow color line...