Why did the Northridge earthquake sky look so unusual in 1994?

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Ivan Seeking
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I just heard this on some astronomy show. When the big quake hit Northridge, Ca, in 1994, at 4:30AM, electrical power was lost over a large area. When the quake ended, and when people went outside and saw the night sky, something that is almost never seen because of all the city's lights, it was such an unusual sight that some people assumed that the strange sky was somehow a factor in the quake!

Now that's really sad; for several reasons!
 
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Did they see the Milky Way? I am dying to go to Joshua Tree so I can get a look.

p.s. after the Northridge quake, all I was looking for was an open bar! :eek:
 
lol! "oh my god look at allllll those airplanes!"
 
I have taken kids camping that have never been out of the city. I have seen a type of fear in them when they first look at night sky. Its completely foreign to them. But by the end of the week the questions start pouring in.
 
hypatia said:
I have taken kids camping that have never been out of the city. I have seen a type of fear in them when they first look at night sky. Its completely foreign to them. But by the end of the week the questions start pouring in.
I grew up in a very rural place, and yet as a young kid always found the night sky frightening. This didn't start until the night my mother pointed out Venus to me for the first time, explaining it was another planet like earth. Before that, I'd assumed the stars were something like light bulbs in a canopy. The realization that we were surrounded by enormous, empty space struck me as very threatening, and made me feel miniscule and helpless.
 
zoobyshoe said:
The realization that we were surrounded by enormous, empty space struck me as very threatening, and made me feel miniscule and helpless.

Forwarded to Zoobyshoe's Therapist. :wink:
 
No, I got over it. Due to certain group campouts in late teenage involving wine, whiskey and vodka, decieved parents, sleeping bags, etc I formed pleasurable associations with the starry veld above.