'Flick of a switch:' Seeing the stars this International Dark Sky Week

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show , it is international dark Sky week. We'll talk about the benefits of living away from light pollution. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. There's been a lot of enthusiasm over the moon and the stars recently , with Artemis two splashing down late last week. But for those wanting to see even more of the night sky , the excitement doesn't have to stop there. This week marks International Dark Sky week. It's a global movement that aims to explore the celestial night sky and curb light pollution. My next guest is here to talk about this week and what it means , and how you can manage your own light use. Eddie Lane is a dark sky advocate with the San Diego chapter of dark Sky international. Eddie , welcome to the show.

S2: Thank you. Thank you very much.

S1: So what does it mean to have a dark sky ? Exactly ? Hmm.

S2:

S1: It seems obvious , but damn , you tell me.

S2: It does seem obvious. And actually , except for during daylight , we should have a dark sky. Because we don't have a sun. We have a moon. When the moon's out , it's a little brighter. And that's not the best time to be able to see the stars. But it's still nice to be able to see the moon and the stars , and that's natural. When we have a moon. The moon's been up there for a few more years than us humans have been here on this planet. However , now that we have been on the planet , we get all technical. We turn on a light bulb. It's washing out the sky as if the moon's out all the time. And or worse , the sun's out all the time. Wow.

S1: Wow.

S2: Just the only light was the sun , the moon and volcanoes causing fire. A little bit of lightning here and there. Yeah , other than that , it wasn't until the late 1800s when we introduced incandescent light bulbs , which were still a warm light , but nonetheless became more pervasive of a light down here on Earth that's shown up and reflected off the the dark sky above to wash out those stars , in our view. Now , again , other than the aesthetics , all of that causes a disruption for all creatures on Earth. Um , so you think about , uh , moths and bats and night creatures and even night plants like it's right there in the name night blooming jasmine. Um , there's a lot of pollination , a lot of bugs getting it on in the in the night of day. The day of night. Uh , and so when they are attracted by a light that is not the natural light that they're used to , they get all disrupted. And I'm sure that you've left a light on in the in the summer eve , and all the moths and the insects gather around that light bulb. Mhm. They think that's a. A.

S1: A.

S2: Sun , a sun , they think it's a light and that's , they're looking for not only a little bit of love from their other little insect creatures , but that's , that's how they propagate. And we kind of destroy that whole ecosystem just by them banging their head against the light bulb and getting exhausted and not doing the purpose for them being there in the first place. Right.

S1: Right.

S2: And if you don't get up to pull that curtain , then you're staring at bright lights. And it's hard to sleep under bright lights , any kind of lights. And a lot of times. Not necessarily maliciously , but people might leave their light on all night , and it shines into your bedroom window and it disrupts your sleep. I don't know about you. We were just talking about caffeine in the hallway here , and it seems to be not enough caffeine in my world these days. But if you don't get a good night's sleep and you don't have caffeine handy , it affects your work. It affects your health. It affects your personality. You're all grumpy. Um , a lot of things like that. Sure. Yeah.

S1: Well , so tell me , I mean , it's April , so why is why now ? Why is international dark sky week.

S2: Um , we have a dark moon or a new moon during this month , and that makes for sky viewing a lot better. Uh , there are some meteors that have showers. They they're dirty , so they want to get clean. So we have these meteor showers. There we go. Still jokes , silly joke. But , um. We have meteor showers that happen almost every year around this period of time and also later in August. And I'm not claiming to be an astronomer , so I'm not going to speak too much to that. But we do have a lot of astronomers that have an appreciation of the night sky , specifically around April because of the meteor showers. Yeah. I more represent the the general average Joe person that's out there that can use their eyeballs to look up at the sky and hope to see the stars in the Milky Way like I could just a few years ago when I bought a house in Valley Center , specifically because it was so dark and beautiful , I could see that Milky Way again.

S1: What does it do for you to be able to look up and see the the Milky Way or a full moon ? I mean , it's meteor showers.

S2: It's nature's artwork up in the sky. And we all share in this entire planet. We all share the same sky. So looking at it makes me feel more peaceful , more wonderment in just what's going on out there beyond the stratosphere , beyond the earth , etc.. Um , the the view of the planets. I mean , talk about Artemis making people looking up and looking down. I mean , there's a lot of attention recently on the moon and what's on the backside of the moon that we haven't seen. So just the the photography that we're able to experience now with such high end cameras and resolutions and telescopes these days , compared to the last time that we were at the moon , just there's there's so much to see out there , and I'm sure that people like to go on a road trip and look at the beautiful landscape and their car. Well , it's the same thing. Just look up and see a beautiful sky or or the northern lights or the constellation , or the full moon , or get all romantic.

S1: Do you think it changes your perspective about what happens here in Earth and in our little world ? Little.

S2: Is your keyword there , huh ? We are so small in this entire universe , yet we're making a huge impact. And. And unconsciously or not intentionally , uh , by a variety of things. We have a lot of pollution here on this earth that can affect the rest of the universe. And even though we are so small in the grand scope of this entire universe , and the amount of time that we humans have actually been on this Earth compared to the life of how long the universe has been around , we're making a huge impact in a lot of ways , and we hear about all kinds of pollution that we're creating. But light pollution is the easiest one to fix of all. Literally flick a switch. You fix the problem.

S1: Problem solved. So what first drew you to Dark Skies ? I mean , and this advocacy work that you do.

S2: Well , I mentioned that I bought that house in Valley Center , and I looked up and I saw before I bought the house , I saw the Milky Way , and I was sold. I had lived in Delmar for 30 years , and it was becoming more and more congested and more and more city lights encroaching. And when I saw that , I was like , oh , I want to live here. Because growing up as a kid , I grew up in Los Angeles , San Fernando Valley. There was a lot of smog , and there were a lot of lights , and we would take rides out with the family to the Mojave Desert. And when I'd see the stars up there in the Milky Way , it just really made me feel connected to what this entire universe is about , just being able to see it and spending time with the family and looking up. And dad introduced me to telescopes and photography , etc. so I thought , oh , this would be great. There's beautiful , beautiful sky over our head and you can't see it in a lot of places , but Valley Center , you could. But three months after I bought the house and I'm up on a hill , the house is perched up on a hill , looking down into the valley. There's a gas station slash little mini mart that decided to put up at least a dozen 16,000 lumen Aircraft landing lights pointed right up at my house and I'm like , not exaggerating at all. I'm not exaggerating. Literally 16,000 lumens. Okay , that's a lot of lumens. For those of you that don't know what a lumen is. Um , our cars , our car headlights , um , bright beam is right around 800 to 1000 lumens. Okay.

S1: Okay.

S3: That's a yeah.

S2: That's a big difference.

S1: They wanted to be seen , you know.

S2: They wanted to be seen. Now they're doing it for security purposes. I understand that people want to go steal a bottle of , uh , Jack Daniels or whatever. Um , and the fact is , ironically , bright light doesn't give you better security , better lighting gives you better security. So having glaring , blinding lights pointed directly in the eyes of the people that are trying to protect you , meaning the police force or security patrol whatnot , only blinds those people to not be able to see the criminals that are trying to break in. Interesting.

S1: Interesting. Well , okay , so I got a question here. I mean , for people looking to really manage their own light use , you have a handy acronym. Tell us about it. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. Okay. My , my , uh , my acronym that I've been playing with a little bit here. Uh , it's you ditz. Hmm. Okay. Not to be offensive , you debt , but don't be a debt. Um , you debt stands for useless for the you so don't have a light bulb out there that is shining uselessly. It has no purpose. A lot of people , sometimes they just forget that they had a light bulb up for some reason , at some point in time. And it's just it's there. It's now useless. So turn those off , unscrew the bulb. Um , do something different with that bulb. Next one is D , and that's the the direction. And this is so super simple. We just in Valley Center , we had a McDonald's , someone to give them a little plug. Relatively new business that shows up. And we have a design review board that makes it look more like a country town version of McDonald's and lighting as part of all of that. And the lighting is supposed to be indirect. It's supposed to be pointing back at the building. So they build it and it looks great. But shortly after they built out the building , they put up some security lights that are shining out into the parking lot. Well , it just so happens that it was shining at the the head chair slash , president of the Valley Center Community Planning Board shining up at her house. And so she connects with me and says , what do we do ? So I took a look at it. The main thing I could do is just change the direction of that light. They had it shining up instead of down. Mhm. So and I don't know if the viewers get to see this through the radio.

S1: Your descriptions are great. You paint the picture ? Well , um , there are already a few dark sky communities right here in San Diego , like Julian Borrego Springs and De Borrego. Like you mentioned. Um , what does it mean to be a dark sky community ? Exactly.

S2: So dark sky as the organization ? Um , they have different levels of lighting communities or acknowledging them as specific communities. And all of this is available on the dark Sky website. So you can get into more of the details of each of those. But there's an application process and a starting point , kind of a baseline of what your lighting is in your community and then what the goal is and tracking of that light. And sometimes it this process will take a year. And or in the case of Julian , they've been trying over a ten year period to not only wrangle in the lights , but also to get the , um , we have lighting zones here in San Diego. A and B were the only two that existed before. There's a new lighting zone now known as zone C , and Julian was a creator or the reason why that was created , zone C. Excuse me , they don't go in specific order. A light zone light zone A is the most restrictive. Anybody that's within I'm going to clear my throat again I gotta I'm starting to sound like , you know. Hey , welcome to the jazz channel here. Thank you. Let me let me take a sip of water here.

S1: Because now I'm curious to know , like , what's the difference between a zone C and a zone A ? And what an example of a zone A or B would be.

S2: Thank you for that. You're welcome. Now that I've cleared my throat , I can actually tell you.

S1: We got 55 seconds.

S2: Yeah , I get all choked up talking about this stuff. Um , zoning is the most restrictive in San Diego. We have two observatories in our San Diego County. One is Palomar Observatory , and the other one is Mount Laguna. And any business or resident that is within a 15 mile radius of those , there is an ordinance to keep it restrictive. Lighting , um , zone B is pretty much everywhere else besides that , and that didn't cover the situation in Julian. Julian is not within 15 miles of the Palomar or Mount Laguna , and they also did not want to have the bright , bright , bright lights. So they had to create a new zone. They're called zone C , so A is the most restrictive. B is the second most restrictive and then C is in the middle.

S1: Okay I got it I got it. Well for more information about Dark Skies and Dark Sky communities , you can find it on our website , kpbs.org. I've been speaking with dark Sky advocate Eddie Lane , and there are lots of events happening right now for International Dark Sky week. You know the website to go find information. Eddie. Thank you so much.

S2: Thank you very much. Shield those lights. We'll be better off.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.