<p>In a discharge-lamp lighting apparatus for lighting a discharge lamp (5) such as a metal halide lamp, there is provided a lighting control circuit (8) which controls its output in a starting time of the discharge lamp (5) in response to at least a length of the last off-time and an on-time after the start of discharging; and a power supplied to the discharge lamp (5) is controlled in accordance with this output of the lighting control circuit. <IMAGE></p>
