The Northern Lights were visible above parts of the North West on Sunday night.
Also known as the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights were spotted by keen stargazers in Ormskirk and Skelmersdale between 11pm and midnight yesterday. According to the Met Office, the lights appear due to "collisions of charged particles in the solar wind colliding with molecules in the Earth's upper atmosphere".
It continues: "Depending on which gas molecules are hit and where they are in the atmosphere, different amounts of energy are released as different wavelengths of light.
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"Oxygen gives off green light when it is hit 60 miles above the Earth, whilst at 100-200 miles rare, all-red auroras are produced. Nitrogen causes the sky to glow blue yet when higher in the atmosphere the glow has a purple hue.
The ECHO reported on Sunday that people across Northern England might have a chance to catch a glimpse of Aurora from 10pm last night, as the solar activity was expected to come to a lower altitude than usual. People who spotted the lights last night told the ECHO that they were initially visible through certain exposures on their cameras at approximately 11pm, before the vibrant colours became visible to the naked eye about half an hour later.
Tony Williams saw the lights from his home in Ormskirk. He told the ECHO: "It wasn't 100% clear that we would be able to see them last night. I just took a chance and about 11pm I looked out of my back bedroom window and I thought that the sky looked different.
"So I got my camera out, tried a few exposures and sure enough there was the Northern Lights right in front of me. At about 11.30 they brightened up considerably and they were visible to the naked eye."
It didn't last for too long though. Tony continued: "At about 12.05 they were all but gone."
Phil Carney walked up to Ashurst Beacon near Skelmersdale in order to see the lights and take photographs. Phil told the ECHO : "After hearing there could be a chance to see Aurora Borealis we decided to take a walk up to Ashurst Beacon near Skelmersdale as there is a good view north there.
“As it was an 80% moon we didn't really think our chance of Aurora Borealis was very good. As we arrived at the beacon we sat down and poured a cup of tea out of our flasks.
"Then around 11.05pm I opened an application on my phone called Glendale and saw that Aurora was becoming visible in Scotland and was heading south towards us in the North West. So I started taking pics on my Huawei P30 pro phone, my camera was picking up light we couldn't see properly with our naked eye.
“As the minutes passed we could then see the Northern Lights dancing across the sky with our naked eye. “This went on for over an hour on and off till around 12.30 am and we were rewarded with some stunning views and pictures."
Wales Online reports that the lights could be spotted by people in the UK again tonight. There is a 20% chance that the UK will be affected by a solar storm which makes the lights visible, according to the Met Office.
