For a decade, Palomar Observatory has begged and cajoled local officials to embrace an unusual anti-pollution campaign--ridding the sky of glare so astronomers can peer farther into the cosmos.
With a 200-inch telescope, "what we're trying to do is understand the structure of the universe, how it came into being, how it evolved," said Robert Brucato, assistant director of the observatory that's operated by the California Institute of Technology.
Brucato and his colleagues are asking that, when new developments come along, communities forsake conventional white outdoor lighting and turn to low-pressure sodium lights, which give off a yellow glow.
Scientists say the difference is that, unlike white lighting, the low-pressure sodium light keeps to a narrow band of the color spectrum that doesn't obscure the faint, distant light of the stars and galaxies.
"Things we're looking at are quite literally 15 billion light years away," said Brucato, who bemoans that, because of the bright outdoor lights from cities surrounding the observatory, "the sky at Palomar is about twice as bright as it should be."
Over the years, San Diego, the county, Escondido, Poway, Vista and San Marcos have agreed to help the observatory. They have adopted ordinances or policies requiring, to varying degrees, that outdoor illumination be provided by the low-pressure sodium lights in new developments.
Now, Oceanside may be the next community to adopt such lighting as the city staff works on an ordinance calling for certain new residential and commercial development to use the yellow lights.
The proposal may go before the City Council later this month.
With nearly 130,000 residents, the largest city in North County hasn't exactly moved speedily to adopt a low-pressure sodium lighting ordinance. Caltech officials approached the city two years ago, but, with other priorities, it has taken until now for the city to respond.
"It wasn't an issue we were entertaining until they came to us," said Oceanside spokesman Larry Bauman.
There's also been some skepticism in Oceanside over low-pressure sodium lights--namely that the bulbs burn out faster, may be marginally economical and might create a problem for police.
Such criticism, which scientists seek to refute, is the reason that Oceanside is only willing to consider using low-pressure sodium lights in future developments such as commercial parking lots, within apartment or condominium complexes and on advertising displays. But not as street lighting.
