Here at home, I’ve just had to buy heavy-duty blackout blinds for the bedroom at the front of the house. Otherwise it’s like trying to sleep in an operating theatre. And while I ought to be used by now to the new LED’s powerful, unearthly glow, I still keep urging my husband to come and gaze upon the latest super moon. The lamp post makes for such a convincing lunar doppelganger I can’t believe it is anything else until I put on my glasses.

Stargazers aren’t happy – all this extra light has a impact on how much we get to see of what the sky holds after dark. Even lamps with shields to prevent spilling light are so bright the very photons seem to bounce off the ground and upwards anyway.

We’re in the countryside, where it’s still possible to find pockets of darkness to stand and be mesmerized by the celestial bodies above us. But elsewhere, all around the world, the march of the LEDs seems unstoppable. From San Francisco to Siena, they are remorselessly replacing their gentler predecessors.