Patent ID: 8450937

Claim:
A high-pressure discharge lamp lighting apparatus that supplies an alternating current to a high-pressure discharge lamp to cause lighting, the high-pressure discharge lamp having an arc tube in which a halogen material is enclosed and a pair of electrodes is disposed, each electrode having a protrusion at a tip thereof, the high-pressure discharge lamp lighting apparatus comprising: an alternating current generation unit operable to generate an alternating current to be supplied to the high-pressure discharge lamp; and a control unit operable to control the alternating current generation unit, wherein the control unit includes a timer measuring an elapsed time from the beginning of lighting of the high-pressure discharge lamp and causes the alternating current generation unit to generate an alternating current with a first waveform until the elapsed time reaches a predetermined time and to generate an alternating current with a second waveform from a point when the elapsed time reaches the predetermined time, the alternating current with the first waveform having a lower or a same absolute instantaneous value in a final section of each half-cycle period thereof compared with the other sections, the alternating current with the second waveform having a higher absolute instantaneous value in a final section of each half-cycle period thereof than in the other sections.