Northern lights over UK ~ 2017

A glimpse of the spectacular Northern Lights here in the UK - thanks to a rare magnetic storm.

On the 8th February 2017, people across the UK have been enjoying the celestial display of the aurora borealis - or northern lights. The phenomenon is caused by eruptions on the surface of the Sun, and this most recent activity has been unexpectedly strong. The aurora was visible in the early hours of the morning bringing a spectacular sight to the skies above Derwent Water near Keswick in the Lake District.

If you have a picture of London's northern lights and you would like to share it in this gallery please email it to us at mypic@telegraph.co.uk including your name and a caption for your picture. HERE

The northern lights are nature's very own magnificent light show. They are the mesmerising end result of electrically charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth's upper atmosphere. Though more frequently witnessed from the polar regions, the UK and other places on similar latitudes are lucky enough for the aurora borealis to occasionally grace their night sky.

The northern lights are driven by activity on the sun and the sun's activity waxes and wanes over an 11-year period known as a solar cycle. The number of large-scale aurora events, the type that is visible from places such as the UK, tends to follow this cycle. But each solar cycle is different, with the maximum and minimum activity varying between each cycle.

The Met Office has said the Northern Lights would dazzle over Britain- just a month after the last sighting of the incredible natural phenomenon over the UK.  The magnetic storm is set to last for 48 hours, with the breathtaking colours of the Aurora Borealis expected to be more striking in the first 24 hours.

The Met Office said: “The northern lights appear as large areas of colour including pale green, pink, shades of red, yellow, blue and violet in the direction due north. During a weak aurora, the colours are very faint and spread out whereas an intense aurora features greater numbers of and brighter colours which can be seen higher in the sky with a distinct arc.

LONDON — If you happen to have looked up into the sky recently and spotted strange patterns of shifting colours, don't panic — the weird bodies of lights appearing above Britain are nacreous clouds.

"Currently, we are able to catch sight of them because cold air which usually circulates around polar regions in the stratosphere (the stratospheric polar vortex) has been displaced from its usual position over the north pole to be over the UK," a Met Office spokesperson said.

"Our weather forecast models indicate the cold polar vortex will remain nearby for the next few days, so we should be able to see Nacreous Clouds when the skies are clear."

"The position of the vortex shifts towards the end of the week taking the coldest air, and the Nacreous Clouds, away from above the UK."

BRITAIN is also on alert for the most severe winter freeze for SIX YEARS ~ snow showers to hit the UK. Forecast for the capital as temperatures plummet below freezing.

Stay Warm

xoxo

Update ~ A Winter's night in London

In awe of the sky.

My back garden at 1.30 am ~ Friday 10th Feb' 2017

The brighter area is to the left of the back garden. 

I should be fast zzzzzz but needed to see if the sky got darker since 9.45pm. It's like time has paused. 

Straight ahead view.

View to the right of my garden.

Every detail is still seen on the houses, fence, grass, etc, normally I can't see anything from the back door at evening time, and my camera would only pick up pitch black. 

A Winter's Night ~ 9.45 pm ~ London

London sky on a winter night

These incredible photos were taken after I let my dog in from the back garden. I was gobsmacked at the sky. A dreamy colour of muted salmon greeted me. At 9.45pm in winter, it's normally so dark that I was transfixed by this sight of what looked like the sun hiding behind a hazy beautifully coloured cloud-encased sky. No mist, no moon, just a softness of the whole sky everywhere I looked. It was seamless with no normal breaks as you would normally see with clouds or even a sunset image, yet it was too late to be that. It was like an image of magical photography taken from a misty dream - yet no mist or fog existed beyond the clouded veil up high. It was so breathtaking I even called my sons down from upstairs to come and take a look. They marvelled at it, too. 

My camera didn't capture the peachy colour well, here it looks more of a dirty orange/brown.

The sky should be dark; a midnight blue, almost black, with stars at this hour, but instead it appears as neither day or night, suspended in-between. 

This time of year and hour it should look something like this ~

But this is more like it ~

The colour was more like the centre of this photo.

In reality, the colour was an ageing salmon, kissed by the sun from behind, which it obviously wasn't, being night. Everything was so clear in front and around me, this dreamy essence remained in the canopy above. I searched the net for pictures that resembled the actual image I saw to give a true 'feel' to colour and essence. Below are the closest I could find in my excitement before the memory faded. 

 Dreamy Sky ~ A seamless cloud

(Blurry dusky peach with light shining through)

A smoky peach whisper kissed by light 

(Perfect colour of what I saw)

Smoky peach cloud - seamless with no gradient of colour

I checked out the sun position etc for today ~

Current Time: 9 Feb 2017, 23:15:43

Sun Direction: ↑ 336.92° NNW

Sun Altitude: -51.01°

Sun Distance: 147.616 million km

Sunrise was at 07:25 ↑ (113°) and 

Sunset was at 17:05 ↑ (247°)

Link HERE

With the sunset being so much earlier, during early evening at 5.05 pm, the light could've only come from the moon. An odd colour, so bright reminding me of  a foggy sunset, strangely beautiful and ethereal.

My back garden at night ~ 9.45pm on Feb' 9th 2017

From the kitchen, stepping out into Narnia ☝👇

Sadly, the camera on my phone didn't pick up the true luminosity and splendour of the sky ~ it was certainly an enchanting image, and one I've never seen before. The best way to explain it? Reminded me of a soft, flannelette sheet, tinted, covering the whole sky but with a soft light shining in from behind ~ blocking anything beyond that completely out. Thick, opaque, same all over in colour and consistency apart from the source of light, in which direction was difficult to determine. If you were to pull at one edge of the sheet or poke it with a stick, the normal sky would once again reveal itself.  

Front garden view about half hour later. The sky appears brownish here, but in fact, was a smoky peach. Not as dreamy as the back garden view with all the houses and streetlight, but still a fantastic, bright, seamless sky. Surreal. If it wasn't so cold, I would sit out in the garden and admire it for longer. Brrr!

The few things other wonderful experiences:

1. A short time ago I saw Venus under the moon when travelling back from a market in the car. The sky was a beautiful blend of pastel pink and lilac. Sadly, I had no camera. A clear sky meant the planet, nicknamed the ‘Evening Star’, was easily visible to the naked eye. Stargazers also spotted the planet Mars which - despite being up to 100 times less bright than Venus - could also be glimpsed to the upper left of the moon. Link HERE

2. A double rainbow - huge. Seen twice. Link HERE

3. Super moon viewed from the garden of a friends house in Devon. If I remember correctly, it was a Hunter's moon, the first full moon after the Harvest Moon. It was around the time of Lammas, between 1 August and 1 September. The first harvest festival of the year (Pagan festival).   Link HERE

4. Blood moon lunar eclipse with a super-moon event 2015 watched from my old garden. Link HERE

5. Rainbow when watering the garden ~ Although nothing to do wth the sky, my partner created a rainbow in the garden. An arch created from using water hose and sun. It was amazing to see a mini rainbow you could reach out and touch. I remember asking my partner if digging at the end of the rainbow would still count if created ourselves. ;o) 

The water drop is acting like a prism - some of the light bounces off the back of the water droplets and back out - the rainbow you see is a combination of millions of these light beams coming back to you.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo