Gorgeous Northern Lights present delights photographers

An unusually intense show of the Northern Lights was captured by photographers across the nation final evening – with a number of the brightest pinks, greens, purples and reds seen throughout Merseyside.

Officially referred to as the Aurora Borealis, the phenomenon is attributable to photo voltaic eruptions interacting with particles within the Earth’s environment.

The Met Office said final evening’s aurora was the results of a robust Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) – when the Sun emits large clouds of particles.

The lights have been seen throughout a lot of the UK, with spectacular sightings significantly alongside the Merseyside coast.

The phenomenon comes throughout a interval of excessive photo voltaic exercise, referred to as photo voltaic most, through the solar’s 21-year cycle.

The solar has extra sunspots which emit CMEs and photo voltaic flares – waves of electromagnetic radiation – and so we see extra of the lights on Earth.

There was one other set of sightings in November final yr attributable to a big photo voltaic flare erupted from the floor of the Sun.

The aurora are usually not all the time seen with the bare eye and may solely be considered with specialist digicam gear, however Monday’s gorgeous show was robust sufficient to be seen by merely wanting as much as the skies.

Silvia Dalla, professor of photo voltaic physics on the University of Lancashire, stated: “Finding a good spot to view the Northern Lights can be challenging, and conditions can change quickly.”

She described “Aurora-hunting” as a “late-night activity”, with the optimum time to view the spectacle normally from 23:00 to 00:00 onwards.

“To maximise your chances of viewing the aurora, the sky needs to be as clear as possible,” she stated.

“Look northwards and try to find a place with dark skies, ideally away from a city where light pollution can interfere with the view.”