Cancel

gear Push settings

bars

homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Reykjavik switches city lights off for Nothern Lights, and it looks amazing

A sight to behold!

Mihai Andrei
September 29, 2016 @ 9:07 pm

share Share

Reykjavik City Council in Iceland has announced that it would switch off many of the city’s lights in order to enable citizens to enjoy the spectacular Northern Lights display – and what a display it was!

Street lights will be turned off in Reykjavík due to the expected northern lights show tonight

Street lights were turned off between 10pm and 11pm in various districts of Reykjavik – including the city centre, for one simple reason: provide the best possible viewing conditions for a particularly intense display of the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights. Residents were also asked to switch off their own lights to reduce light pollution to the minimum.

Photo by Reddit user ourtran

Iceland’s skies lit up for three days, with last night being expected to be the most spectacular of them all. It wasn’t as strong as Monday’s, but it was still a sight to behold. According to the Icelandic Met Office’s website, which offers a daily forecast for the northern lights, some particular conditions have to be met in order for such a strong display – the aurora borealis “requires dark and partly clear skies.”

Photo via Imgur/hebbihebb

Photo via Imgur/hebbihebb

 

Both locals and tourists shared their own pictures of the beautiful event. Florian (@flo.scha), a German photographer and traveler, has been posting photos from Iceland for several weeks. He was delighted to see the northern lights.

“The lights were really strong in the last two nights. It was unbelievable,” said Florian Schade, 18, from Hamburg, Germany, who has been living inIceland for two months and working at a bed-and-breakfast in Keflavik, in the south.

Photo via Imgur/hebbihebb

So, the only question that’s left is: who’s coming to Iceland?

share Share

This 5,500-year-old Kish tablet is the oldest written document

Beer, goats, and grains: here's what the oldest document reveals.

A Huge, Lazy Black Hole Is Redefining the Early Universe

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a massive, dormant black hole from just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Did Columbus Bring Syphilis to Europe? Ancient DNA Suggests So

A new study pinpoints the origin of the STD to South America.

The Magnetic North Pole Has Shifted Again. Here’s Why It Matters

The magnetic North pole is now closer to Siberia than it is to Canada, and scientists aren't sure why.

For better or worse, machine learning is shaping biology research

Machine learning tools can increase the pace of biology research and open the door to new research questions, but the benefits don’t come without risks.

This Babylonian Student's 4,000-Year-Old Math Blunder Is Still Relatable Today

More than memorializing a math mistake, stone tablets show just how advanced the Babylonians were in their time.

Sixty Years Ago, We Nearly Wiped Out Bed Bugs. Then, They Started Changing

Driven to the brink of extinction, bed bugs adapted—and now pesticides are almost useless against them.

LG’s $60,000 Transparent TV Is So Luxe It’s Practically Invisible

This TV screen vanishes at the push of a button.

Couple Finds Giant Teeth in Backyard Belonging to 13,000-year-old Mastodon

A New York couple stumble upon an ancient mastodon fossil beneath their lawn.

Worms and Dogs Thrive in Chernobyl’s Radioactive Zone — and Scientists are Intrigued

In the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, worms show no genetic damage despite living in highly radioactive soil, and free-ranging dogs persist despite contamination.