Why use many streetlights when one will do?

And for anyone who remembers "Dazed and Confused": there's no way you'd fit a party up there!

Speaking as an astronomer whose view of the night sky is being constantly diminished by light pollution, this is like finding that the Eye of Sauron has been preserved as a heritage site

I love that Tom seems to have a checklist that he goes through for each video that includes an item "Ask if I can climb it/ride it/drive it because they might say yes"

5:10 Speaking of light pollution, I lived in Austin during the big winter storm in 2021, and my entire apartment building and most of the surrounding ones lost power for the week. I remember going out to walk to the grocery store (one of the few remaining places with power) past sunset and just marveling at how you could see everything just because of the light pollution reflecting off the clouds at night, even with the power out!

I work nightshift in security and am regularly patrolling a bunch of properties outside of town. It keeps amazing me whenever there is a full moon in the sky just how much you can see in that light. So much so that in those nights I rarely need my flashlight at all. Most people have no idea just how bright a full moon really is.

It still amazes me that Tom and his team have continued to find interesting things to cover for nearly 10 years now

Sent Tom an email about these moon towers a few years ago cause I thought he’d find them interesting. He responded by saying that he and his team were already planning on doing a video on them! Some great turnaround on that, Tom 😂

Is anyone else sad these amazing little videos are slowly reaching the end after 10 years? Short, well scripted, and a reassuringly unchanged format that is beautifully simple. These will be missed Tom…!! ❤

"Kept running because the people of the city of Austin likes them" We need more of this attitude. I live next to Austin and wish we could have stuff like that over here. It makes the city feel "home-y" or just cozy and nice to live in.

Not many videos left, we will miss you Tom!

I love how you interview people for these oddities and they seem so happy to talk about their thing.

The successors to moon towers are high-mast lamps, which are typically used in North America to illuminate highway interchanges.

Thanks for featuring us Tom! The Austin Dam originally powered these lights, which was replaced by the Tom Miller dam. If you're still here, consider having a sunset dinner at Hula Hut. It sits right on the dam basin. The food is okay, but it's quite atmospheric albeit a little cold now!

There's a lot of things I love about living with the technology we have now....but even living in a rural area when I go out at night to look at the stars I wonder what the sky would have looked like in the 1700's.... I wish people cared about light pollution as much as they do all the other types we try to reduce.

"Party at the Moon Tower... full keg, everybody's gonna be there"

In a modern form, you can see similar tall lighting structures used along the M621 motorway in Leeds, UK. They're known as high mast lighting. They have since been upgraded to LED lighting, but are otherwise as originally installed. They were installed in the 70's, and have been preserved by the council as a landmark of the city. One reason they were installed is to avoid lighting up just the roads they were on - it was thought that 'general' lighting of the area would be preferable.

Back then when the entire city wasn't electrified this was a practical but LARGE solution. We take the ambient light from houses and buildings for granted but back then it would have been DARK without these towers. I know the carbon arc electrodes from certain movie lights needed to be changed every hour or less. Thats how the expression "lights, camera, action" originated - you didnt burn movie lights constantly and only turned them on just before the camera started rolling so that they would last longer before needing to be replaced and adjusted

My understanding is that Austin purchased the towers from Detroit when that city electrified its streets with street lamps, so the towers were already old tech when Austin installed them. Back then, Detroit was rich and Austin was a backwater looking for the most economical way to get the most light for the lowest cost. That may explain why they were never taken down.

Tom, thank you so much for coming to Austin! As a resident and a long time viewer, it was so cool to see you talk about these monoliths right in my home town. It feels so special to see you here in a way that I did not expect.

As a native Austinite, I so appreciate you telling the story of one of our beloved local icons!