By KENT JACKSON
A representative of Eckley Asphalt seeks to ease worries that lights from a new plant will interfere with stargazing.
David Moyer said the plant will operate in daylight after opening in April and won't need lights immediately.
If lights need to be installed later or if special projects require night work for a week or so, Moyer will discuss the lighting with members of the Greater Hazleton Area Astronomical Society.
"We'll work with them," Moyer said.
Gary Honis, assistant director of the astronomical society, met with Moyer after noticing construction at the asphalt plant and realizing the potential peril to the observatory a few hundred feet away.
"It could be the end of our operations up there," Honis said.
Society members began peering through telescopes at Eckley in 1986 because the surrounding skies were so dark. They purchased the land for their observatory in 1995.
By selling pierogies during festivals in Eckley Miners' Village and receiving donations, the society's members raised money to develop the observatory.
They installed a concrete pad and electrical service for their telescopes and parked a trailer to house their computers.
At the museum across the road from the observatory and the baseball field in Eckley, shields aim lights downward so beams don't drift it the astronomers' view.
Last year, Hazleton Materials opened a quarry in Eckley without using shielded lights recommended by the society members.
Quarry lights, however, are far enough from the observatory that they haven't bothered astronomers, Honis said.
Eckley Asphalt is unaffiliated with Hazleton Materials, Moyer said.