City to Review Lights Near Observatory

In an effort to eliminate some of the glare in certain neighborhoods and around Moorpark College’s observatory, the City Council is requesting a review of city regulations on lighting requirements.

Councilman Clint Harper said he would like the city to allow low-pressure sodium lamps, which emit less light pollution. He also wants the city to evaluate the color of light bulbs as well as their intensity when requests for new lighting are made. Currently, the city only evaluates spacing, pole height and brightness.

He said color can vary in two otherwise identical lights because of something as simple as a slight difference in the temperature of the bulbs.

“If you get too high a temperature in a bulb, you get too much blue or purple coming out and most people find that annoying,” Harper said.

As an example, he pointed out a commercial lot where the lights are too hot, causing the color to shift to the blue part of the spectrum.

“I still get calls from people complaining about those lights,” he said. “When you look at it, it dazzles the eye.”

He said color also determines what type of street lights work best around observatories. The yellowish-orange color that low-sodium street lights emit gives off one well-defined wavelength that easily can be filtered out of a telescope.

“The light pollution is still there, but the filter blocks it,” Harper said.