As an astronomer of 37 years, I thought I would share a few of my views on the subject with you.

  Light pollution is preventing a whole generation of people from observing the night sky. It is avoidable by implementing a few simple measures. For example:

  1.  Local councils should be required by law to replace streetlights, when they are due to be replaced, with a "hooded" type that directs all the light downwards, not upwards into the night sky.

  2.  New streetlights should be low- and not high-pressure sodium. The latter are more expensive to maintain, produce more uneven lighting with more shadows, and generate light at wavelengths right across the spectrum that is difficult for astronomers to filter out. In Tuscon, Arizona, which is ringed by several of the world's great observatories, stringent measures have been introduced, including the replacement of high- with low-pressure sodium lights. I have received all the technical information from Tuscon about non-polluting streetlights, if you would like a copy.

  3.  Councils should also be required to limit the amount of architectural and shop lighting. Some examples:

  Croydon Council have actually started a programme to light up buildings of note at night. Needless to say, a high percentage of this light will only light up the night sky.

  There is an out-of-town store complex in Cardiff that has been installed with hundreds of globular lights that do the same. Again, in Tuscon, shops have to extinguish their lights by a certain time at night.

  3.  Security lights on houses should be forced, by law, to be installed so that their light is only directed downwards.

  In Britain it is virtually impossible to stand under a totally dark sky unless you are at the end of Cornwall, in the Scottish highlands or somewhere in Snowdonia. It is no use teaching children about the Universe unless they can experience it first hand—for which there is no substitute. My own view is that light pollution is a direct contributor to the appalling level of ignorance about science so prevalent in this country. From my own experience, there are so many people who would love to know more about the Universe, but have no way of observing it because their skies at night are permanently orange, with only the very brightest stars visible.

  We really do owe it to future generations to preserve the night sky. We owe it to everybody, not just scientists and astronomers. I have never met one person who did not feel a sense of awe and wonder when standing under the stars—it is a link with nature that goes to the very core of what it is to be human. The solutions to the problem may take years to implement, but we have to make a start. And the solutions are easy and inexpensive. We just need to educate people and show them the advantages.

30 April 2003