Bosscha – An Astronomer

Always I have been fascinated with the heavens that carpet the sky at night. I once had a telescope but not on the scale of Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha.

Bosscha affected adversely by light pollution
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Lembang

If Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha were still alive today, he would be saddened by the sight of the semi-spherical domed building he built in 1923 with his own money on Lembang plateau, North Bandung.

Bosscha, then an estate businessman, would have taken good care of the 11-meter-long Zeiss double refractor telescope. So huge was the telescope, it had to be dismantled and put in 27 boxes weighing 30 tons before being transported in 1928 from Germany to Indonesia on board vessel Kertosono, which was owned by Rotterdamsche Lloyd. Bosscha would certainly also have taken good care of the other four telescopes: Bamberg, Schmidt, Goto and Unitron. Located at a height of some 1,300 meters above sea level, the site — on one of the hillocks of Mount Tangkuban Perahu some 15 kilometers to the north of downtown Bandung — was chosen owing to its strategic position.

Such a height enables free viewing to the east, west and south, which suited Bosscha’s master plan — to build the world’s first observatory for sterrenwatcht, the Dutch for stargazing. The cool air and the observatory’s seclusion has allowed researchers to fully concentrate on observing heavenly bodies such as stars, meteors, asteroids and planets.

Unfortunately, the residential area around the observatory has been expanding since the 1980s. More and more people are interested in living in Lembang where they can enjoy the city lights of Bandung at night.

Kusminah, 52, said when she first moved into the area with her husband 30 years ago they only had five neighbors. Today, the neighborhood is crowded with hundreds of houses.

The population density in Lembang — and in Bandung — means artificial light is beamed into the sky, which obstructs monitoring. Vehicle smoke and dust also disturbs stargazing activities. The condition worsens during weekends and holidays, coupled by the construction of a 24-kilometer road leading to the integrated tourist resort from Bandung city.

“It is now bright with lights around Bosscha so many heavenly bodies can no longer be observed,” said Taufik Hidayat, chief of Bosscha Observatory, the largest observatory in Southeast Asia.

In its early years in the 1920s, Bosscha had about 200 clear days a year. These days were really illumination-free during the night and became the best time for stargazing. Street lights and air pollution, Taufik said, have limited the range of the telescopes.

“Because of the pollution, the night sky is no longer really pitch dark, which is the most important requirement for an excellent telescope of the Zeiss class to perform at its best.

“Over the past two decades, only 60 percent of the darkness of the nocturnal sky around Bosscha Observatory has remained. That’s why it is very difficult now for a researcher to observe a heavenly body below 30 degrees.

Hendro Setiyanto, coordinator of public services at Bosscha Observatory, said star constellations below 45 degrees had become difficult to see through the telescopes. In addition, heavenly bodies that have magnitudes of 16 and under are no longer visible.

“It is now difficult to view the Southern Cross constellation, which determines the direction of the north. Even when there is a thin cloud, it will disappear from sight,” said Hendri, who has been working with the observatory since 1998.

Environmental damage brought about by land clearing in which big trees were felled have aggravated the condition. Thick leaves, said Taufik, are needed to ensure that the light from the earth will not reach the sky.

At present, according to a research conducted by Bosscha Observatory, residences have taken over 2,000 hectares — double than permitted — on the conservation area in Lembang district, where the observatory is located.

The residential areas encroach on a radius of one kilometer, or on a plot of land measuring about 400 hectares, around the observatory. In over 75 percent of the land in the north-west and south-west of the observatory, large and leafy trees have been felled. Some of the land has been turned into rice fields.

About 15.4 percent of the land — in the west — has become a residential area while the remaining area in the east has become a cattle breeding ground and an emplacement.

“The observatory, built on a plot of land measuring only 8.26 hectares, constitutes only 2.6 percent of the total area,” Taufik said.

Outside the one-kilometer radius, Bosscha Observatory is squeezed in by plots of land now controlled by a real estate company planning to build an integrated tourist resort and villas. This plan has since 2004 prompted protests, not only from Bosscha researchers but also from neighboring residents. The West Java administration has declared it a status-quo but the administration of Bandung municipality, in a form of exercising its autonomy power, has instead allow an assessment of the environmental impact, which might signal for consent for the continuation of the construction.

Another decree issued by Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik to make Bosscha Observatory a cultural reserve will not help Bosscha Observatory overcome its real problem, namely air and light pollution, because the decree does not include a stipulation that the observatory must be located at an ideal distance from residential areas.

Lembang district head Eros Roswita said the district administration could not prevent locals from building houses on plots of land they had owned for dozens of years.

“I can only tell the community the problems that Bosscha is facing. They generally show their understanding and now they are waiting to be told what to do,” Eros said.

While relocating the residents would be costly because the price of a square meter of land in the area is between Rp 200,000 and Rp 1 million, efforts to encourage residents to reduce light, according to Hendro, should be feasible.

“If every house in Lembang and Bandung can reduce their light by providing a canopy for the lights placed outside and use bulbs rather than neon lamps, light pollution can be easily reduced. In this way, energy will also be saved,” he said.

Bosscha Observatory, which is a laboratory for astronomical education, has no authority to regulate the community.

Only time will tell whether policymakers are progressive enough in their thinking to side with Bosscha, the observatory that has for decades revealed the mysteries of the southern skies.


Source: Planet Moule ~ Indonesia in focus