Sunday, July 26, 2009
Fight light pollution in the NRV
Christian Trejbal
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From the RoundTable blog
Step outside tonight an hour after sunset and look up.
If you live in one of the rural parts of the New River Valley, you will probably spot the Big Dipper and the North Star. Maybe you will pick out Scorpius in the south sky and Saturn shining near Leo. You might even see faint wisps of the Milky Way, as long as you are not looking toward a town or city.
If you live in Christians-burg, Blacksburg or Radford, you will more likely see glaring streetlights and needless campus façade illumination. In a dismal display of misplaced priorities, the majesty of Lane Stadium outshines the majesty of the universe.
With the 40th anniversary of the moon landing last week and with 2009 being the International Year of Astronomy, it is the perfect time for local governments to restore nighttime darkness in the New River Valley. Dark skies could be a boon for tourism, save energy and offer residents something special.
Radford University's Selu Observatory sits south of the city and the highway. Visitors to its Friday night open houses can see many celestial objects, as long as they do not look north.
"From an astronomical point of view, even little Radford can be quite a bright spot," explained Jack Brockway, the observatory director and a physics professor at Radford.
In town, it is worse.
"If I'm near any sort of street light, the glare from it can pretty much wipe out anything that's in the sky there," Brockway said. "Glare is a problem. Some lights actually decrease our ability to see because they are so bright."
Montgomery County's towns and even the county itself offer the same overwhelming brightness.
Anyone who has ever seen a truly dark sky knows the difference. So many stars are visible that they conceal familiar constellations. The planets shine brightly. And The Milky Way spills across the sky revealing dust lanes and uncounted stars in our home galaxy.
We could have that kind of darkness in the New River Valley, but elected officials and residents must stop fearing the night and recognize the benefits of reducing light pollution.
A typical yard light, streetlight or parking lot light wastes much of its output. Smarter lights -- dimmer, shielded, directed ones -- make every lumen count. If a community or university eliminates the waste, the cost savings on electricity could be substantial.
Lights should shine only where and when they are needed. Sure, it is nice to illuminate a landmark or a street throughout the night, but communities could turn off those lights at a reasonable hour and save.
And choose better technologies. In homes, the push is toward compact fluorescent. When it comes to streetlights, the move should be toward low-pressure sodium lights. They emit an orange light and that provides plenty of illumination for safety but less glare and light pollution.
Your thoughts
- Should NRV localities adopt strict lighting ordinances? Comment at the RoundTable blog.
Other communities have embraced the dark and could provide model ordinances. Hawaii's Big Island, for example, keeps things dark for residents, visitors and the observatories that sit atop Mauna Kea.
It is a point of pride for island residents. "Those observatories are discovering things all the time, even stars being born," said Debbie Domingos, a rental car shuttle driver.
For her, requiring less light pollution is not a burden; it allows her to be part of the scientific research going on 13,000 feet up the volcano and gives her a beautiful night sky that most Americans never see.
In the New River Valley, darkness would fall slowly. If localities adopt strong lighting ordinances that apply to public and private outdoor lights, they would likely phase in over years.
The wait would be worth it. Besides the energy savings, dark skies could be one more piece of the region's tourism marketing. The New River Valley bills itself, in part, as a place to enjoy the great outdoors. The night sky could draw urban dwellers who have never seen the Milky Way.
And those of us lucky enough to live here would have something special to see whenever we step outside after dark and look up.
