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Lights out in Iceland for view of night sky
Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | 27. September 2006 | unattributed

Posted on 09/27/2006 6:49:35 PM PDT by 1rudeboy

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The lights are going out in Iceland this week so people can gaze at the night sky.

Authorities in the capital Reykjavik will turn off street lights on Thursday evening and people are also being encouraged to sit in their houses in the dark, writer Andri Snaer Magnason said on Wednesday.

While the lights are out, an astronomer will describe the night sky over national radio.

"We have a very beautiful sky as soon as we turn off the lights," Magnason, who came up with the idea, told Reuters.

The event is part of a film festival taking place on the small north Atlantic island, which gets most of its electricity from abundant thermal energy.

The lights are due to go off at 10 p.m. (11 p.m. British time), about two hours after nightfall, for half an hour.

Magnason said the capital's population of around 250,000 might be able to see the Northern Lights, a flickering curtain of light often seen in northern climes which is caused by solar particles being caught in the Earth's magnetic field.

Two other Icelandic towns will also turn off their lights.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; Outdoors; UFO's
KEYWORDS:
Alternate headline: "Iceland begins effort to repopulate island this weekend."

Honestly, I'd love to see this done in the U.S., but our lawyers would certainly have none of it.

1 posted on 09/27/2006 6:49:36 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: sig226; Leifur

ping


2 posted on 09/27/2006 6:50:16 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Night sky viewing in the northern latitudes is certainly better than in other areas north of the equator. Iceland, far out in the northern Atlantic probably has the best view. Grew up in northern Canada ... remember the northern lights in the winter months ... really spectacular.
If you whistle they dance ...
3 posted on 09/27/2006 6:56:40 PM PDT by BluH2o
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To: 1rudeboy

My husband and I saw the green flash at sunset in Ireland, Liscannon to be exact, twice this month. and a green ray, even more rare.


4 posted on 09/27/2006 7:14:08 PM PDT by Mercat (Show me what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman.)
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To: 1rudeboy
The lights are going out in Iceland this week so people can gaze at the night sky. Authorities in the capital Reykjavik will turn off street lights on Thursday evening and people are also being encouraged to sit in their houses in the dark

Sorta defeats the purpose, don'it?

5 posted on 09/27/2006 7:16:26 PM PDT by mikrofon (Astro BUMP)
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To: mikrofon

It was cloudy, so maybe people did something other than watch the sky.


6 posted on 09/29/2006 9:44:15 AM PDT by Truth29
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