TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The battle for a secure border has brought unwanted light to some of Arizona's darkest skies.
That's not good news for the state's $1 billion investment in astronomical observatories, whose operations are being threatened by the glow from federal Homeland Security installations.
The Arizona Daily Star reports that officials with Whipple Observatory have complained to the Border Patrol about helicopter or truck-mounted spotlights searching the desert for illegal immigrants.
The spotlights can illuminate a 40-foot-diameter mirrored disc at the base of Mount Hopkins, one of four giant collectors searching for faint traces of light from gamma rays in an attempt to pinpoint their origin deep in space.
A direct hit from the helicopter's spotlight could fry hundreds of extremely sensitive photomultiplier tubes in the dish's $200,000 camera.
