Light blinds local astronomers

Light, long regarded by man as the ultimate in purity, is a polluter, a threat to experiments and observation in a major scientific discipline. And the worst aspect of it is that pollution by light has no useful aspects. It's expensive, dangerous, a concealment for criminals lying in wait, and a major impediment to astronomy.

Dan Goins, Martinsville High School astronomy and general science teacher, is a leader in the amateur group that took over the Link Observatory after general light pollution caused Indiana University to move out. The state institution now uses a newer telescope in a darker Morgan-Monroe Forest.

Goins was host for a meeting of Evening Edition Kiwanians in the observatory named for the late Dr. Goethe Link, master of surgery, bicycle racing, balloons, bird-watching, a pioneer in the treatment of goiter, the first surgeon in Indiana to perform a Caesarian section, the first caudal drainage of the pancreas in the world, and the first total gastrectomy for cancer in Indiana; and Indiana University Medical School founder. Before iodized salt, the deficiency disease of goiter was widespread in Indiana, where natural iodine supplies are low. (Kiwanis International has mounted a worldwide campaign to eliminate the scourge.)

Link died in 1981 at Morgan County Memorial Hospital, at age 101.

Lights aimed wrongly

Goins said that billboards, service stations, and streets are poorly illuminated, though they use wasteful amounts of light and power. The beams, instead of illuminating their objectives, actually tend to conceal their dangerous aspects and waste money for billboard advertisers. They could save $30 a year per billboard, and be illuminated better. Wrongly sited or focused lights, intended to discourage felons and nuisance makers, actually give them a shadowed hiding place in which to lurk, said the teacher, whose other enthusiasm is railroading.

Goins said that Link, staffed by amateurs, still contributes valuable data to the astronomy discipline. The Indiana Astronomical Society staffs the institution with eager amateurs, whose endeavors include tracking down errant space objects and documenting major astral events.

Indiana University still controls the observatory property.

Link began construction of the observatory in 1937, in the Clay Township hills west of Brooklyn. He was assisted by the Indiana Astronomical Society and IU.

The Link telescope's 36-inch mirror is patterned on the same design principles that guided construction of the Mt. Palomar Observatory in California.

The Links donated the observatory to IU in 1948. The university in turn, has delegated the state's astronomers to run it. The facility has drawn astronomical societies from St. Louis, Rockford,. Ill., Ft. Wayne, Cincinnati, and other cities. Its meeting guests include the Great Lakes Planetarium Association and the Midwest International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry Symposium.

Goins is president of the Indiana society.

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