| 10/25/2002 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | In the Dark
Stargazers wonder why others don’t see the light.
By: Courier Staff and AP Services
Indiana stargazers, frustrated because their favorite heavenly bodies are obscured by city lights, say it’s time for state leaders to get serious about controlling light pollution.
Among those making the plea is Hanover College professor George Nickas.
“It’s getting to the point where it’s really hard to find a really black, dark sky without driving an hour-and-a-half or two hours from Indianapolis,” said Brian Murphy, vice president of the Indiana Astronomical Society.
As a child, Murphy recalls lying on a blanket at his family’s farm and gazing up at a quilt of stars. Now, he said, the area along the border of Marion and Hamilton counties is awash in light from development that makes it difficult to see the night sky.
A year after a panel of lawmakers recommended that Gov. Frank O’Bannon appoint a task force to study the issue and write a model lighting ordinance, the group has never been formed.
“What’s really frustrating is that this problem is so easy to address,” said Kevin Fleming, founder of the Indiana Council on Outdoor Lighting Education, a volunteer organization that is leading a letter-writing campaign to persuade the governor to appoint the task force.
O’Bannon spokeswoman Mary Dieter said the governor simply has not found enough people interested in serving on such a task force.
“This is not off the radar screen, but it is not as high a priority as wetlands or clean air,” she told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Thursday.
In perfect darkness, 2,500 stars should be visible to the naked eye. But only 200 to 300 stars are visible in a typical U.S. suburb, according to the International Dark Sky Association in Tucson, Ariz.
The problem, stargazers say, is poorly directed light — fixtures that have no shields or caps, sending about one-third of nighttime light to the heavens instead of the ground.
“Almost every town over 7,000 or 8,000 people has a Wal-Mart and fast-food places,” Murphy said.
In Hanover, a BP gas station and McDonald’s restaurant constructed last year near the Hanover College observatory have sparked complaints that the businesses’ lights obscure students’ view of the Western sky.
Although the gas station owner agreed to shield some lights, McDonald’s officials would make no changes, said Nickas, an astronomy and physics professor.
“It’s hard to see until they close at 1 or 2 in the morning, which is later than we want to hold class here,” he said.
But the issue “goes way beyond the loss of the night sky,” Murphy said.
Fleming estimates Indiana residents spend $100 million a year on energy to generate the excess light, leading to more pollution from coal-burning plants that produce the energy.
Light pollution may affect people’s health by interrupting natural sleep rhythms, and it may confuse animals, such as migrating birds, said Elizabeth Alvarez, director of the International Dark Sky Association.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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