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The Bright Stuff For millennia, the mystery of the dazzling spectacle known as the Northern Lights perplexed mankind. One man unlocked their secret - and with it many basic secrets of the universe. But his obsession cost him his health, happiness and sanity, and perhaps even his life. Lucy Jago salutes the genius of Kristian Birkeland
The Independent - London; 4/29/2001; Lucy Jago; 5761 words
; ... world from which to observe the Zodiacal Light, a phenomenon no less mysterious ... where he proposed to study the Zodiacal Light. In an act of great generosity ... espionage. While he was observing the Zodiacal Light one night alone in the desert ...
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WHIRLED AWAY ON A RIVER OF LIGHT
The Boston Globe; 2/24/1997; Chet Raymo; 757 words
; ... far-reaching glow. We were seeing the zodiacal light, brighter than I ever remember seeing it before. The zodiacal light is caused by sunlight reflecting ... February are the best time to see the zodiacal light, and nowhere better than here ...
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City lights obscure the stars. (UK).(report from the Council for the Protection of Rural England)(Brief Article)
Geographical; 8/1/2003; Crawshaw, Simon; 151 words
; Light pollution is on the increase, according to a report from the Council for the Protection of Rural England. The phenomenon ... parts of the countryside. Regular night viewing has been limited to only the brightest of stars, with five out of the 12 Zodiacal constellations being completely obscured. The report ...
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Washed away in a sea of light
The Boston Globe; 2/15/1999; Chet Raymo; 829 words
; ... Beehive in Cancer, a blur of light from a cluster of stars too ... another blur, elongated, the light from two adjacent star clusters. The zodiacal light streaming vertically from ... away in a sea of artificial light. Imagine listening to a live ... environs of a city or suburb. Light ...
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Celestial light display nice touch for holiday
Intelligencer Journal Lancaster, PA; 12/10/2005; Merri Niland / North Museum; 414 words
; ... above seemingly mirroring the points of light decorating the landscape below. My eyes ... constellation than the more well-known zodiacal constellation, Pisces, the "fishes ... month. Between these supernal gifts of light shines Fomalhaut, sometimes referred ... in the dark of December, as nature's ...
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THE NORTHERN LIGHTS.(book reviews)(Brief Article)(Review)
Harper's Magazine; 11/1/2001; Davenport, Guy; 959 words
; ... largest of the planets, sits a halo of wildly agitated strips of light twisting and juggling, shooting up and darting down. Earth ... chemical fertilizer, inventing an electric cannon, charting zodiacal light (a wispy counterpart of the auroras, visible at the equator ...
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A Brilliant, Yet Mysterious Scientist : The science and romance behind the northern lights are explored in this biographical tale of Norwegian physicist and visionary Kristian Birkeland.
World and I; 3/1/2002; EGELAND, ALV; 1727 words
; ... a millennia and still makes headline news all over the world. The northern lights ... comet tails, Saturn's rings, and the zodiacal lights in his terrella laboratory. Birkeland ... where he lived and worked, Jago sheds new light on Birkeland's last years of research ... does not mention that Birkeland studied ...
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By the light of many moons, he meets the millennium
The Boston Globe; 9/12/1999; D. Quincy Whitney, Globe Correspondent; 1081 words
; ... setting and stars coming out and zodiacal arches and the auroras, and ... don't know what's going on, zodiacal arches which are these peaks ... different places in the sky, light like no other place in the ... Smith to portray the night's light as he sees it, a light that touches that edge ...
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BLINDED BY THE NIGHT LIGHTS
The Boston Globe; 3/25/2003; CHET RAYMO; 645 words
; ... as a splotch of artificial light, like a spreading phosphorescent ... satellite photographs as blobs of light. But, until recently, the ... the winter Milky Way, the zodiacal light, the Andromeda Nebula, the ... resort development puts enough light into the sky to turn my northern ... fixtures are ...
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DEBAUCHED ON LIGHT
The Boston Globe; 6/12/1995; Chet Raymo; 773 words
; ... own way: Marcel Minnaert's "Light and Color in the Outdoors ... a compendium of tricks of light and color in the natural world ... something of a connoisseur of light and color. I had trained my ... rainbows. Glories, sun dogs, the zodiacal light, mirages, moon bows, noctilucent ... observe the ...
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