Sorry, but I hear too much stuff along those lines from people who aren't joking.

The real issue with lighting isn't about astronomy, or people seeing the stars. Light streaming up into space is light that isn't doing useful work on the ground. Simply redesigning street lights and other outdoor fixtures to redirect light where it's supposed to go can actually save a large amount of energy and money.

My Dad planted me with the habit of turning off house lights I'm not using. I keep one or two lights on at night in places like the bathroom for the kids. All of those are fluorescent bulbs, which are also in almost all the other non-dimming fixtures I have in my house. I tried using them in the porch lights (attached to movement-sensitive switches), but they looked too freaky.