Greenhouse light pollution affecting work at the Hallam Observatory in Comber

“On the worst night here from due east to due west and straight overhead — that entire part of the sky, half the sky essentially is virtually starless,” said past president Randy Groundwater.

Society member Dan Taylor said the light pollution is also hampering research work.

“I was a member of a scientific association in the United States that collected information on specific stars, now because of the light pollution it’s much more difficult to do that kind of work,” said Taylor, who was instrumental in getting Point Pelee National Park designated a dark-sky preserve.

Groundwater said doing that around the observatory isn’t possible because the area is largely agricultural.

The greenhouse growers are fighting a Leamington bylaw limiting the light pollution and are due in court this summer, but Ontario Vegetable Greenhouse Growers general manager Joe Sbrocchi said in an interview in December he believes greenhouse growers can reduce roughly 90 per cent of the light “almost all of the time.”

Groundwater said light pollution is also detrimental to wildlife and can disrupt circadian rhythms.

He said the society doesn’t want to move the observatory because part of its mandate is public education locally. He said it’s getting more difficult to find areas where there isn’t light pollution, anyway.

He said if the light pollution continues to get worse the observatory will likely concentrate on observing the sun, moon and bright planets.

“The proliferation of the greenhouse industry, while has been great for the local economy, has had detrimental effects on the sky quality at night,” he said.