O.T.A.A.'s Light Pollution Link

The Ohio Turnpike Astronomer's Association first formed a Light Pollution Committee in 1994. Tenatively dubbed, the HELP Committee (Help Eliminate Light Pollution) The committee's first efforts fizzled, but popular demand brought the organization back on task and we have now re-formed a new light pollution committee with a renewed sense of purpose.

If you are an observer like me, you have felt that battling light pollution is akin to changing a tire with a toothpick. Today it is fashionable to light up large buildings with spotlights. Money spent on outdoor lighting in the United States of America is greater than the entire budget of some countries. An Ohio amateur once told me there was no point in hoping that Light Pollution could be curbed in Cuyahoga County. (Where even today, shopping malls, hospitals and developments are increasing their nightly output.

Yet, there is hope in the astronomical community, light pollution "battles" have been fought and won. A few years ago, members of the O.T.A.A. won a better lighting plan at a park where a boat dock's new floodlights would have made observations at the Astronomy Club of Akron's observatory next to impossible.

O.T.A.A. members want to unite so that the light pollution problems we face can be handled more easily, in greater numbers. We want to educate the public so that people no longer ask the '90's question: Why do they call it light pollution? We want to take back the night so that others can enjoy the stars.

Our IDA representative, Ken Lowther has co-founded a light pollution mailing list. To join: Send e-mail to listserver@fpi-protostar.com. Put the words "subscribe drksky-list" in the body of the message, without the quotes of course.

On this page, you will find the minutes to our meetings as well as links listed below to help you surf the internet for more information on what is being done to save the night.

Click here for the minutes to the Ohio Turnpike Astronomer's Light Pollution Committee Meetings

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A List of Light Pollution Sites on the World Wide Web

Campaign for Dark Skies - Sponsored by British Astronomical Association and the International Dark Sky Association

City of San Diego Light Pollution Law

Green Light Program of the EPA

Fred Schaaf's Light Pollution Notes - - Includes an archive of Schaaf's articles that appear in S & T Magazine

IDA, Inc International Dark-Sky Association

Light Pollution Effects - from Dave Nash's home page

NELPAG New England Light Pollution Advisory Group

Office for the Protection of the Quality of the Sky IDA's mirror site (Canary Islands LP activities)

Pennsylvania Outdoor Light Council

If you have any comments or suggestions for the O.T.A.A. Light Pollution Committee, please feel free to send them to cygnus@en.com

Beam me back, Astra!