Star gazers visiting the White House on Wednesday will get a real show — not celebrities, although President Barack Obama and the First Lady will be there — but actual celestial objects.

The Obamas are hosting a star gazing event for middle school students. More than 20 telescopes will be set up on the lawn, and the plan is to let the students observe Jupiter, the moon and the District of Columbia’s star scape — which, to tell the truth, shouldn’t be all that great.

For one, the moon is just past full, and when it comes up that evening its light will blot out a lot of the stars. Plus, Washington — like just about every other major urban area in the world, and a whole lot of non-urban ones as well — is so plagued by light pollution that it’s difficult to see farther, smaller, dimmer objects.

So, what the heck, the moon it is. And can you imagine the effect on the students, who will likely remember forever such a special moment as star gazing from the White House lawn.

One celeb who will be there is the Franklin Institute's chief astronomer, Derrick Pitts, who is one of only three non-NASA folks demonstrating at the star party.  The Franklin even shipped a telescope to the White House last week to be used. Pitts will be back at the Franklin on Thursday, hosting the monthly series, "Night Skies in the Observatory."

(UPDATE ON WEDNESDAY EVENING: Pitts just called the Franklin staff and reported that the President asked him to set up the Franklin's telescope right next to the presidential podium.  ... By the way, the rest of us who weren't invited to the party can watch via live streaming video at www.WhiteHouse.gov .   There also will be a live video chat beforehand with Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, with questions taken via Facebook and Twitter. The  will also be carried on NASA Television’s public and education channels beginning at 8 p.m.)

The event is timed to an awards ceremony for the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at the White House earlier that day. According to a White House statement, the star party is intended to “highlight the President's commitment to science, engineering and math education as the foundation of this nation's global technological and economic leadership and to express his support for astronomy in particular — for its capacity to promote a greater awareness of our place in the universe, expand human knowledge, and inspire the next generation by showing them the beauty and mysteries of the night sky.”

The International Dark-Sky Association has applauded the event. Credit goes to that group and the American Astronomical Society, Astronomers Without Borders, the National Optical Astronomical Observatory and the United States Naval Observatory.

According to the Dark-Sky Association: Numerous astronomical celebrations will take place this month. The star party will occur during World Space Week, declared in 1999 by the United Nations General Assembly. This year, it’s being held from today through Saturday, under the guidance of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs.

Oct. 9 to 23 marks this year’s Great World Wide Star Count — an attempt to document the effects of light pollution. Participants around the global will search for the constellations of Cygnus and Sagittarius and note what they see.
Information on all October events is available on the International Year of Astronomy Web site at http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/features/.

Meanwhile, groups in this area have long been concerned about light pollution and have worked with local governments to get lighting ordinances passed. Here’s a story I wrote about their efforts in 2007: 
 

Let there be (less) light;
The spread of population and its illumination threaten to make dark sky a rarity. Unlike most environmental ills, this one is easy to fix.
 

Not long after the new Schuylkill Elementary School opened last fall, residents gave it a disparaging nickname: the Schuylkill Airport.

It was the lights.

The playground was aglow at midnight. Light from the school near Phoenixville shone onto neighboring properties, through bedroom windows.

Light pollution - the glare of civilization that makes it hard to see the full blanket of stars at night - has long been an environmental issue, but mostly among stargazers, who contend the dark sky is one of the world's fastest-disappearing natural resources.

Try as they might to enlist support, they were often dismissed - except in places such as Arizona, home to a major observatory.

Now, however, a confluence of concerns is ratcheting awareness up. And getting lights turned down.

Public-safety advocates are going after "glare bombs" that blind drivers.

In defense of rural tranquility, people are taking issue with the "light pillars" shooting skyward from malls and cities. (Is that a fire, or just Philadelphia?)

And woe to the developer who wants to install streetlights that bleed light skyward or into windows - "pollution on a stick."

Across the country, states and municipalities are enacting measures to limit light pollution, defined as "excess or misdirected light."

Advocates in Eatontown, in North Jersey, which passed its lighting ordinance in 1993, now give unofficial lighting tours to show off how dimmer can be better.

About 31 municipalities in southeastern Pennsylvania alone have passed ordinances in the decade since Montgomery County's Karl Krasley, a backyard astronomer since boyhood, formed the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council.

Along the way, efforts to curb rampaging photons have attracted some unusual dance partners, from wildlife experts who say excess light disorients migrating birds and sea turtle hatchlings to medical experts concerned about the effect of bright night light on human health.

Lately, dark-sky advocates may have found their best ally yet: energy conservation.

Saying that about 30 percent of lighting is wasted - it is "ill-conceived, ineffective or inefficient," they say - the International Dark-Sky Association, based in Tucson, Ariz., estimates the annual toll is as high as $10 billion.

Not to mention increased air pollution and global warming from burning fossil fuels.

"People are starting to realize everything is connected to everything else," says Dennis Ward, of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. He recently coordinated a citizen science effort, the Great World Wide Star Count, to chart light pollution. 

In two weeks, he got more than 4,000 observations from 61 countries. He hopes the results will raise awareness and eventually illuminate trends.

Unlike most environmental ills, light pollution is easy to fix - turn it off, turn it down, or shield it from your neighbors. And the heavens.

"The remarkable thing about this problem is that so much of it could be eliminated just by technology that exists and by practices that make good sense," says Fred Schaaf, an astronomy author who teaches at Rowan University.

Schaaf, like other astronomers, has watched the night sky brighten with accelerating speed. Area groups have been chased ever farther from metropolitan centers.

Although South Jersey groups can still see our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, from their sky watching posts deep in the Pine Barrens, Franklin Institute chief astronomer Derrick Pitts can hardly pick it out with his telescope.

The Dark-Sky Association cites a 2001 study estimating 80 percent of Americans rarely see a sky darker than one lit by a full moon.

In the darkest spots - such as Cherry Springs Park in Potter County, Pennsylvania's first "dark sky park" - as many as 14,000 stars are visible. In most cities, you can hardly pick out 150.

Ultimately, our new world of day and partial day may be as much a loss for humanity as for science.

The bejeweled sky has inspired humans to create myths, write poems, compose sonatas, ponder the existence of God, and fall in love.

All of which are unlikely to happen in the glare of a car dealership or gas station.

While a fast-food restaurant needs to be lit only to an average of 2.5 foot-candles - the brightness of a candle from 2.5 feet away - most are lit to 20 foot-candles. Except in Eatontown, which has mandated the lower limit.

The pump islands of its gas stations can be brighter - 20 foot-candles - but not the 150 foot-candles that most are.

When a new Lowe's was built, plans called for 400-watt "wall packs" around the perimeter of the building - "a totally shielded blob of light," said John Batinsey, a member of the environmental commission.

The Lowe's wound up with 175-watt shielded lights, using 30 percent less energy.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 16 states have laws meant, at least in part, to curb light pollution. 

In 2001, Pennsylvania proposed legislation to regulate lighting at state facilities, but the measure failed.

In response to increased inquiries from municipalities, the Dark-Sky Association and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America are drafting a model ordinance.

Perhaps they need look no further than the one devised by the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council. It requires light shields, restricts the height of recreational lights, and even bans flag-lighting after 11 p.m., except for the state and U.S. flags.

A lighting council member is starting to take area readings of sky brightness - instruments that are the visual equivalents of decibel meters exist - hoping to discern some trends and see if ordinances are making a difference.

"I think we are [making a difference]," says council president Stan Stubbe. "But the problem is, there's a lot of bad lighting out there from before. We're trying to prevent bad lighting before it happens."

Many municipalities with ordinances are like Chester County's Wallace Township, which is "desperately trying to uphold and maintain the rural character" in the face of rapid development, says Mark Eschbacher, a member of the environmental advisory council. Its newest subdivision will have no streetlights.

Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council founder Krasley lives in Limerick, where for years the lights of a nearby bowling alley shining into his windows were so bright he could read by them.

That changed after Limerick passed its ordinance. Krasley can now see the Little Dipper, and the bowling alley "looks like a nice business. So it works. If you stop light pollution, it's not a losing situation for anybody."

Like Wallace, Schuylkill Township was a rural enclave of farms north of Valley Forge Park, until developers discovered it. Its lighting ordinance was passed last month - well after the elementary school wired a timer to shut off half its lights after 11 p.m.

Environmental advisory council member Andrew Kreider said officials homed in on safety and quality of life. But the eco-angle resonated, too. "For us, it was really just common sense . . . It's sort of a win-win-win."