I’m in a Department of Physics and Astronomy, so several of my colleagues are astronomers. We also have a rather nice on-campus observatory, used for student research projects.
Unfortunately, the combination means that we have a running argument with the rest of the campus regarding lights. The rather nice observatory is basically useless if there are big bright lights on all around it all the time, but various other groups want to have bright lights on all the time: Athletics wants the lights on the football field on so they can run night practices and intramurals; Campus Safety wants more lights everywhere, because they think it makes people safer; the architects working on plans for a potential upgrade of the science facilities are forever coming up with drawings of buildings with gigantic glass atriums (atria?) and spotlights and so on, because lots of glass and light make architects feel all warm and fuzzy. It’s a constant battle to get the astronomers’ concerns taken seriously.
Astronomers all around the globe are nodding as they read this, because it’s a problem everywhere. Tommaso Dorigo has a very nice post explaining the problems of light pollution, and the things astronomers do to try to detect and compensate for it.
And, interestingly, there’s a post at the Security Mentor arguing that more lighting does not necessarily mean more safety (spinning off a New Yorker article about light pollution and campaigns by astronomers to get darker night skies. It probably won’t make a difference– one of my colleagues says that this is already well-known among the astronomy and professional security communities– but every little bit helps.