Even at nearly two miles high in the Rockies, the Milky Way is getting blotted out by so-called "security" lights. That's the report from one man in Leadville, elevation 10,182 feet, who is calling for a law mandating "smart illumination" to preserve the night sky.
"I feel we need an ordinance that has teeth,' said Brad Littlepage. "This is one fix we can make cheaply, and it will give us long-term gratification so we can go outside, look up, and see what this universe is all about."
Although security is the intention of much of this warehouse style lighting, often it is ineffective or actually makes a building less secure, because it blinds anybody looking at a building, notes the Leadville Chronicle.
"Many of us have moved to mountain areas for the aesthetics of the starry sky, and we're not ready to surrender that by allowing less-than-smart lighting to proliferate," said Robert Stencel, an astronomy professor at the University of Denver. "We refer to bad lighting as litter." -- Allen Best