Moorpark College Observatory May Be Blinded by the Light

A large new housing development just outside Moorpark could blot out the view from the Ventura County’s only observatory, an astronomy instructor says.

The glow from the 3,221 homes at the planned Hidden Creek Ranch could interfere with sightings from the Moorpark College observatory’s 20 telescopes, which are already obscured by existing city lighting, astronomers say.

“When I first got here 10 years ago, you could see the Milky Way clearly,” said Ron Wallingford, who teaches astronomy and is the school’s observatory director. “Now you can just barely see it.”

And Hidden Creek, he fears, “will totally obliterate it.”

Messenger Investment Co., which proposed the Hidden Creek project, is working with the college to minimize the effect of lighting.

Along with the houses, the development would add two golf courses and a shopping center that would be 1,000 yards from the observatory.

The builders made concessions in the development agreement with the city to limit the height and spacing of street lamps near the observatory. There also restrictions on the kind of bulbs they will burn.

“Even if they shielded the lights, there’s no way they can’t impact the observatory,” said Jim Cassou, publicity director of the Ventura County Astronomical Society. “There will be a degradation, no matter what.”

Recognizing that serious astronomy may become impossible, the development agreement calls for the Irvine-based developer to offer the college free land for a new observatory site within Hidden Creek Ranch.

Since it opened in 1987, the Charles Temple Observatory has been a haven for local stargazers.

The silver-domed facility at the northeast end of the campus draws thousands annually and serves as a lab for students enrolled in five weekly astronomy classes.