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 😂

"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.

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

The Moonlight towers produce an illumination of 0.1 lux. Per comparison, a standard room of 3 x 4 meters, illuminated with an incandescent 60 W light bulb (or a 9 W warm LED), has an illumination of 75 lux. Consider that 75 lux is enough to read, but to conduct minute work like sewing or writing with a pen for hours, you need 200 lux. The Moonlight of 0.1 lux is sufficient to walk, see trees or other static objects, or recognise the profile of a person. It is enough to feel safe if you already know the area. Thank you Mr. Scott. Greetings Anthony

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!

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…!! ❤

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

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

"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.

Not many videos left, we will miss you Tom!

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.

When I saw the title of the video, I knew you must’ve visited us here in Austin. I learned the history of these not long after I moved to Austin in the 1980s. During the warmer part of the year, you can enjoy two of Austin’s icons at once — stand out under a moonlight tower at night and you’ll see our bats flying around, eating all the insects that are attracted to the lights. It’s very cool to watch!

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.