With no light pollution and fair weather, a stargazer should be able to see as many as 7,000 stars with the unaided eye.

In Huntington, most don't see anywhere near that number. As a general rule, if you can't see the Milky Way on a clear summer night, then fewer than 250 stars are visible in your area, mostly because of light pollution, according to Dan Rozell of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Division of Air Resources in DEC's Region 1 office in Stony Brook.

Light pollution is a term used to define nighttime artificial light that is misdirected, misplaced, unshielded, excessive or unnecessary. That's according to Susan Harder of the Long Island-based Dark Sky Society, a public advocacy group. She made a presentation to the village's Board of Trustees at its Tuesday, Jan. 19 meeting at the behest of Trustee Dr. Lelande Deane. 

It causes a plethora of problems including glare, light trespass, ecological disturbances, health problems and a nighttime "sky glow" overhead that indicates wasted energy and obscures constellations such as the aforementioned Milky Way.

Many municipalities —including the towns of Huntington, Brookhaven, Riverhead and East Hampton and the villages of East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Quogue — are either working on or have already approved "dark sky" initiatives to reduce light pollution, Harder said, and she hopes Lloyd Harbor Village will soon be among them.  

The code adjustments can be long and detailed, such as the Town of Brookhaven's, or consist of several sentences, such as that of East Hampton Village.

Harder explained that appropriate dark-sky lighting "provides adequate light, reduces glare for better visibility and safety at night and conserves electricity." Also, she noted, "Often I have found any kind of changes to dark sky lighting pays for itself sometimes in six months to two years but the most I've seen it take is five years."

Deane said he hopes so, as well. "We understand that lighting is very important for our quality of life and safety, but the bad things resulting from light pollution have begun to far outstrip the good things, " Deane said. "We villagers have been talking about this for some time so we're honored to have Susan here to speak about it. "

In response to questions from the remaining board members, Harder said that making adjustments can be simple.  For example, flood lights can be aimed down or reduced in wattage. Flood lights can also can be replaced with a shielded fixture or add a "dusk-to-dawn" setting, particularly those illuminating landscaping. "Since it's non-essential, I think that's not too much to ask of people. That is very helpful and will hopefully get their consciousness going.  Also, I think some people sign up with a landscape guy and they don't ask about wattage. It's not necessarily a choice they  made. " Harder said. "Plus, it seems landscapers always put them up as high as they possibly can so the homeowner has to call them just to change the bulb."

Trustee Hilary P. Rolih asked if existing non-conforming lighting would be "grandfathered" in and hence, immune to the code.  She said that would be true. "But, again, even existing lighting can be aimed down or reduced in wattage," she said.

Trustee Ralph Alfenito asked how residents would know they are in violation of the code. Harder said that enforcement is complaint-driven. "If someone complains to the village code enforcement department, they would then put a flier on the door letting them know a neighbor complained," she said.

Deane said that it might be beneficial that Lloyd Harbor is not the trailblazer when it comes to this type of legislation. "In a way, we've been johnny-come-latelies but we can learn from others," he said and then asked Harder what she thought the "biggest pitfalls" might be in trying to enforce such legislation.

"You never know until you have enacted it," Harder said. "And then when you find out what the issues were and then you adapt. I think the  first step is to make adjustments and then adapt."

Mayor Leland Hairr said the board would take Harder's recommendations under consideration and discuss the issue further.