Sodium Street Lights

Columnist Tony Perry’s July 10 comments on the Palomar Observatory and street lighting require some response (“Hiding Your Light Under a Bushel Named Science,” San Diego At Large).

The 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain is not just one of the biggest telescopes on Earth, it is one of the most precious instruments ever built by mankind. It is a monument to our inquisitiveness, and, unlike simple ornaments like the Statue of Liberty, it is a monument that is in the continual service of humanity.

People from all over the world submit ideas for how to best use it, and then only the best are invited to Palomar to wrench answers from the sky and push back the limits of our knowledge of the universe. The Hale is priceless, irreplaceable, costs next to nothing to operate and will last forever.

But light pollution can kill it, and turn the Hale into a useless tourist attraction, like its sibling telescope on Mt. Wilson in Los Angeles.

Such a waste can be avoided simply by using sodium street lighting. Someone should explain to Tony Perry why any one radio station isn’t allowed to broadcast at all frequencies. If one was, listeners would not be able to tune that station out (and tune another one in) on the radio dial. Sodium lights, unlike white-light alternatives, don’t “broadcast” at all frequencies of light. Observers can tune the sodium lights out.

To sacrifice the venerable Hale simply because Perry claims he doesn’t like the color (of low-pressure sodium lights) would be a shameful act that North County would have to justify to the rest of the world.

JEFFREY J. REGAN, Del Mar