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Date: 01 Oct 2006 21:01:48
From: Florian
Subject: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars


The story is a bit unclear if it's just this week or every Thursday. =
This isn't a good week since the moon is approaching full phase...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060927/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_iceland_lights


.Florian






 
Date: 01 Oct 2006 16:48:15
From:
Subject: Re: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars



Florian wrote:
> The story is a bit unclear if it's just this week or every Thursday. This isn't a good week since the moon is approaching full phase...
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060927/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_iceland_lights
>
>
> .Florian

It was just that night only and only for a period of 30 minutes.



 
Date: 02 Oct 2006 07:42:35
From: Paul Schlyter
Subject: Re: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars


In article <01WTg.9884$xg7.9446@tornado.socal.rr.com >,
Florian <star6@TheDesertSon.com > wrote:

> The story is a bit unclear if it's just this week or every Thursday.
> This isn't a good week since the moon is approaching full phase...
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060927/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_iceland_lights
>
>
> .Florian

The moon doesn't disturb at all that day. On Thursday 28 Sept the Moon was
two days before first quarter .... true, this is "approaching full phase",
but otoh the Moon "approaches full phase" all the time from new to full...

Also: since Iceland is situated at a high latitude, not far south of
the arctic circle, and since it's (northern) fall, the Moon will set
at or very soon after sunset all the time from new to a few days
before full. It's actually hard to even see the Moon until it's
almost half at fall when the Moon is waxing (and equally hard at
spring when the Moon is waning). This is something you who live
farther south aren't used to, but it's nevertheless a fact at high
latitudes.

Actually, on Thursday 28 September the Moon is so far south in the sky
(declination -27 to -28 degrees) that the Moon is below the horizon
all the time as seen from Iceland -- it never rises there that day and
a few days afterwards.

Therefore, this Thursday is a perefectly good week for turning off the
light in cities - at least as far north as Iceland, Scandinavia and
Alaska. Further south (in e.g. Florida) another week would have been
better - but Florida isn't about to turn off its lights as far as I know.

The article only mentions this Thursday and says nothing about other
Thursdays - perhaps it's an experiment to see what the people think
about this idea.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://stjarnhimlen.se/


  
Date: 02 Oct 2006 18:30:31
From: Trane Francks
Subject: Re: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars


On 2006年10月02日 16:42 +0900, Paul Schlyter wrote:

> The article only mentions this Thursday and says nothing about other
> Thursdays - perhaps it's an experiment to see what the people think
> about this idea.

I'd certainly LOVE to see Tokyo do this.

trane
--
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Trane Francks trane@gol.com Tokyo, Japan
// Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.


   
Date: 02 Oct 2006 07:58:18
From: Marty
Subject: Re: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars


The idea is very nice. While it isn't going to suddenly sweep the
world, as people see the news stories, they might begin to realize that
they're missing something wonderful. Good publicity for dark skies.
Marty



   
Date: 03 Oct 2006 02:32:57
From:
Subject: Re: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars


On Mon, 02 2006 18:30:31 +0900, Trane Francks <trane@gol.com >
wrote:

>On 2006?10?02? 16:42 +0900, Paul Schlyter wrote:
>
>> The article only mentions this Thursday and says nothing about other
>> Thursdays - perhaps it's an experiment to see what the people think
>> about this idea.
>
>I'd certainly LOVE to see Tokyo do this.
>
>trane


It reminds me of:

The huge blackout in New York, many, many years ago.

The dark in Los Angeles after the Northridge earthquake. (It was so
unusual that some residents phoned the authorities, asking whether the
unusual number of stars had caused the earthquake! *sigh* )


B


  
Date: 03 Oct 2006 00:35:34
From: Florian
Subject: Re: Iceland to turn off street light to see stars


>The moon doesn't disturb at all that day. On Thursday 28 Sept the Moon =
was
>two days before first quarter


Oh! My mistake. I was thinking the story was talking about this coming =
Thursday, 5. Thanks Paul.

.Florian