MOORPARK : Shielded Lights Help College Observatory

Moorpark College officials are overseeing the final stages of a project that would keep the sky over the campus dim enough to observe the heavens.

The project to install 94 light shields in the college parking lot is almost over, just in time for one of the biggest meteor showers of the year. An evening show is scheduled Saturday at the college observatory.

The encroachment of development and the resulting light pollution has been a longtime concern for members of the Moorpark College astronomy faculty, instructor Hal Jandorf said.

Installing shields took a year to bring about and costs the college about $51 a shield, or $4,794, said astronomy instructor Charles Townsend. The shields deflect the light downward, away from the sky.

While the installation of shields on lampposts at Moorpark College alleviates the surrounding light problem, the orange glow of lights from nearby Simi Valley threatens to extinguish nighttime observations in coming years, Jandorf said. Light rays from ground sources obstruct the viewing of celestial objects through telescopes.

“For Moorpark, the observatory itself will be useless in 10 years, except for looking at the moon and sun,” he said.

In addition to the public shows, the astronomy program runs evening laboratories every day of the week, in which students peer through 13-inch telescopes into deep space.

Although the shields will work as a temporary solution to the light problem in the parking lot, Jandorf predicted that the glow emanating from newly installed stadium lights on the other side of the campus may also force astronomy instructors to reschedule their evening programs so that they do not conflict with sports events.