By Bruce C. Smith

Staff writer

MOORESVILLE, Ind. _ All of the light glowing from new homes and businesses in the suburbs may be too much of a good thing.

As astronomers at the Goethe Link Observatory see the light, it's a curse that cuts their ability to peer into the dark, night sky and to see faint, distant stars.

The interference already has become so bad that Indiana University, which owns the 60-year-old Link Observatory, stopped using it several years ago for research purposes.

Bright lights can also become a safety problem, endangering motorists blinded by glare.

And every new subdivision, strip shopping center, gas station and roadside sign approved by local government officials can make the light pollution worse unless it is restricted.

"This is one of the newer issues of urban sprawl, this light pollution problem. I personally find some of the lights so bright that they are painful," said Kevin Fleming of the Indiana Astronomical Society.

"As long as lighting is properly designed and used, it's not a problem," he added.

Fleming is trying to spread that word to town and county planning departments and other officials in the metropolitan area that their help is needed to limit the spread of light in unwelcome places.

For example, he said, is a rebuilt Amoco service station at Ind. 37 and Ind. 144 in Johnson County near the border with northern Morgan County is causing a light problem.

The high-powered bulbs of the station have compounded the light pollution affecting the observatory, which is nearly six miles to the west in Morgan County, he said.

Fleming said the station has 39 bulbs of 400 watts each under the canopy, plus more flood lights around the grounds.

Its so bright that the intensity of the light is brighter than that from Victory Field, the baseball stadium in Indianapolis "where the players are trying to see 90 mile-an-hour fast balls," he said.

Mike Griffith of the Johnson County planning department said the station's site plan was reviewed before it was built, but light wasn't considered an issue beyond its effect on neighbors.

The county ordinance on light is aimed at requiring developers to install trees, fences or some other kind of screening to block light at the ground, he said. It doesn't affect the ambient light bouncing up into the sky.

That's similar to the planning and zoning ordinances in Hendricks County, which is a fast-growing area just north of the observatory.

The county's Area Plan Commission often requires developers to show a lighting plan. The county may limit the lighting fixtures to types that shield bare bulbs from view and also direct the light downward.

"I don't think very many local governments have put all of this issue together. There are some ordinances here and there, but enforcement is another matter," Fleming said.

One of the most progressive applications of outdoor light in the western suburban area, in Fleming's view, are the Indiana Department of Transportation street lights on the roads near Indianapolis International Airport.

The lights have a design that is shielded on top and directs the entire glow downward onto the streets and roads.

Fleming asked, "If they can do it there, why isn't it done everywhere?"

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