Reykjavik, Iceland, turned off its lights Wednesday so residents could see the northern lights better, dimming street lamps to give people an ideal view of the phenomenon.
The city council ordered that street lamps be turned off about 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., noted National Public Radio, but The New York Times said they were eventually kept dark until about midnight. City officials were trying to get the light pollution to a minimum for the best possible viewing conditions for the natural aurora borealis display, better known as the northern lights, noted the Times.
Police warned people watching the lights to be careful, stressing the dangers of observing the phenomenon while in the middle of a darkened street or in a car parked on the roadside, noted then Times.
The northern lights happen when electrically charged particles from the sun enter the Earth's atmosphere. The Times said the phenomenon had been bright above Iceland for several days this week.
"They come in waves as usual and to appreciate them one has to be patient," Sævar Helgi Bragason, editor of astronomy website Stjörnufræðivefurinn and Northern Light expert, told the Iceland Monitor. "The city looked beautiful in the darkness. It was interesting to see it looking a bit different."
Bragason told the BBC News that it was a "great gesture" by the Reykjavik city council to turn off the street lights.
"I hope this will be done more often as it was very successful, especially for those who were patient enough to wait for the lights to appear," Bragason said, noted the BBC News. "It also encouraged more people to go out and look up to the night sky, which is great."
Many shared their pictures of the northern lights on social media.