‘Dark skies’ attitude rewarded
Mother Nature dipped into her bag of astonishing tricks
last week with a dazzling exhibition of what the human eye can behold
above us when given the chance.
First, for nights on end, a brilliant array of stars and
constellations — like jewels strewn across dark velvet — twinkled
through the nights.
Then came the dazzling splash of spectacular dancing
colors across the northern skies of Idaho as well as around the world —
the aurora borealis.
Usually reserved for people in northern Canada and Alaska,
the stunning aurora in its shades of red and green so far south was one of
those natural phenomena that reminds us Nature always beats out humankind’s
technological wizardry in creating astonishing sights.
One web site devoted to atmospheric events www.spacew.com/www/auroras.html
glowed with breathless observations from around the world about Friday
night’s show.
For those in the Wood River Valley who stayed up for the
spectacle, foothills and mountains were held in dark silhouette throughout
Friday night by an inextinguishable and iridescent green glow.
It’s worth mentioning that this dramatically bears out
the virtue and value of Ketchum’s "dark skies" ordinance —
which prevents blinding ground lighting from polluting the nighttime skies
and obscuring views of brilliant stars and other phenomena.
And, coincidentally, Ketchum’s "dark skies"
ordinance will prove to be a fateful and welcome contribution to
conservation and cost savings during the growing concern for electricity
supplies.
