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D. L. Crawford (IDA, Inc.)
Good quality nighttime lighting is important for any locale, including near astronomical observatories. Good lighting has great value. Unfortunately, there is too much bad nighttime lighting everywhere. There is no location where one should waste light or energy, or blind motorists by glare, nor offend ones neighbors by bad lighting, nor light up the night sky. This paper discusses the problems inherent in poor quality lighting, such as glare, light trespass or obtrusive lighting, clutter and confusion at night, urban sky glow, and energy waste. Good lighting minimizes all of these problems, and all lighting designs and installations should use such quality lighting. Educational outreach is the key to achieving overcoming these problems.
Valuable information can be obtained from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), which has produced many information sheets and other resources (such as slide sets) about the issues. See IDA's Web page (www.darksky.org) for information. IDA is a membership based, non-profit organization, with members from all states in the USA and from 70 other countries.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: crawford@darksky.org