The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word DAVY LAMP
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
D
A
V
Y
L
A
M
P
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "light coming into the pit" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case light coming into the pit = davy lamp.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.