An Amazing Change Coming to El Paso’s ‘Star on the Mountain’

Have you noticed how much brighter El Paso's Star on the Mountain seems to appear these days? It’s not your imagination, it really is.

The bulbs that make it shine like a diamond every night were converted from fluorescent to LED at the end of 2019 giving it the much cleaner and brighter glow you may have observed lately. But the changeover to LED lights is only a temporary thing.

The plan is to upgrade to more amazing light technology down the road. ABC7 KVIA reports the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, which along with the organization El Paso Shining Star is in charge of the maintenance and upkeep of the star, is working towards outfitting the light monument with RGB LED bulbs.

RGB is an acronym for red, blue and green. RGB LEDs combine the three colors to produce over 16 million hues of light.

What will that mean for our star? "We can turn [it] any color we want,” Paul Terry of El Paso Shining Star told the news station. “We could have multiple strings that could change different colors. We can make them dance. It's limitless what we can do.”

So, when will our already unique landmark get the upgrade that will make it that much more distinctive? According to the televised interview it will be sometime in the "near future." It's currently in the planning and design stage so it likely won't be this year, but its certainly something to look forward to.