STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The lights are going out in Iceland（冰岛）this week so people can gaze at the night sky.

Authorities in the capital Reykjavik will turn off street lights on Thursday evening and people are also being encouraged to sit in their houses in the dark, writer Andri Snaer Magnason said on Wednesday.

While the lights are out, an astronomer（天文学家）will describe the night sky over national radio.

"We have a very beautiful sky as soon as we turn off the lights," Magnason, who came up with the idea, told Reuters.

The event is part of a film festival taking place on the small north Atlantic island, which gets most of its electricity from abundant（充足的）thermal energy（热能）.

The lights are due to go off at 10 p.m. (11 p.m. British time), about two hours after nightfall, for half an hour.

Magnason said the capital's population of around 250,000 might be able to see the Northern Lights, a flickering（闪烁的）curtain of light often seen in northern climes（区域）which is caused by solar（太阳的）particles（粒子）being caught in the Earth's magnetic field（磁场）.

Note:

今天晚上，北极冰岛首都雷克雅未克将在晚上10点关掉街灯，同时鼓励市民也关掉自家的灯，以便观赏天空中闪烁的北极光。届时，广播中还会有天文学家为大家描述和讲解美丽的夜空。