There's a new comet coming our way, the Hale-Bopp comet. It should be visible to the naked eye towards the end of this year. Some astronomers are predicting that it will be "The Comet of the Century."

That's the good news.

The bad news is that in spite of its immense size, we may not see much of it. One of the factors that made the great comets of earlier centuries so great was that the skies were much, much darker back then. Without the light pollution that comes from millions of street lights and other night lights, people could see the night sky with a vividness that most of us today have never known.

As an example, if you were born before World War II, you're likely to have seen the Milky Way. To many children growing up today, the only Milky Way they know anything about is a candy bar.

David Crawford, from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), would like to do something about this. "Light pollution is not a matter of life and death," he concedes. "Nonetheless, we human beings lose something of ourselves when we can no longer look up and see our place in the universe. It is like never again hearing the laughter of children; we give up part of what we are."

Crawford feels that such a loss might be acceptable if light pollution were the inevitable price of progress, but it's not. Most "sky glow," he feels, is unnecessary.

The light that obscures our view of the night sky comes mainly from inefficient lighting sources that do little to increase nighttime safety, utility, or security. The price tag for this waste, he says, is more than $1 billion annually in the United States alone.

What can individuals do to reduce "sky glow," while saving money at the same time?

Crawford says that one of the first things many of us could do is to rethink our nighttime security needs. We like outside lights because they make us feel more secure, but with most of these lights, using them is neither an effective nor an economical way of meeting our security needs.

The typical 175 watt dusk-to-dawn "security light" creates not only bright light, but also, deep shadows. "This is counterproductive to good vision," Crawford points out. "The criminal can hide in the deep shadows near such lighting. Look around near one of these bright lights," he suggests. "See the deep shadows next to the overlit areas? It is hard for the eye to adapt to such sharp transitions."

A more effective solution, Crawford believes, would be a low wattage light of somewhere between 18 to 55 watts. This would be more economical, and it prevents the dark shadows where criminals can hide.

The light should be shielded so that all the light is directed downward rather than sideways or upwards where it does no good. Ideally, the kind of light would be a low pressure sodium light since these provide the least light pollution.

An even better solution., Crawford says, is an infrared sensor spotlight fixture. The spotlights only come on when the sensor sees movement.

For another approach, your community might copy Brisbane, Australia. One evening last summer, people agreed to turn out their lights between 8:00 and 10:00 P.M.. to engage in star gazing. People saw stars as never before while saving enough energy to power a city of 60,000 people.

For more information contact the IDA at 3545 N. Stewart, Tucson AZ 85716.