Northern Lights: 'How I captured the display on camera'

Photographers have been sharing their experiences of seeing the northern lights over parts of the UK.

The green glow in the sky, also known as the aurora borealis, was visible on Sunday night.

The display is caused by highly charged solar wind particles from the sun colliding with air molecules in the earth's atmosphere and transferring their energy into light.

The aurora borealis is normally only seen from more northern countries like Iceland, Canada and Norway.

Jamie Hassall, from Oakham in Rutland, travels around the world photographing the aurora borealis.

Until this week, the clearest sighting he had had was in Finland.

But then, on Sunday, they appeared on his doorstep at Rutland Water.

"This is the fourth time I've captured them at Normanton Church but this weekend's show was the best ever," he said.

"Walking from where I parked the car to the edge of the water, I then proceeded to run for the church because I could see it and you never know how long the northern lights are going to last."

In the end, they lasted for about 45 minutes and his wife even had time to drive over and join him.

"Over the church, it was breath taking," he said.

Darrian Fearn saw the aurora borealis from Beeley Moor, in Derbyshire, after monitoring solar activity.

He said: "I saw levels were excellent so got in the car and drove to a dark spot on the moors where I had previously seen the northern lights back in 2014."

Mr Fearn said he was not disappointed with what he saw.

"After several pictures, I could see a hint of green aurora on the horizon, so continued taking pictures.

"As time ticked on, I intermittently checked my pictures and saw that the green was getting stronger and that there were also hints of blue and red," he said.

After nearly an hour of photographing, he started getting cold and thought about packing away - until he received a notification on his phone that said the solar storm was about to peak.

"I continued taking pictures," he said. "It was around 21:15GMT. I looked up at the sky and it exploded.

"I could clearly see the reds, greens and whites - I felt elation and was in awe of mother nature.

"The display was magical and sent goosebumps down my spine.

"[It] only lasted a few moments but it will stay with me till the day I die."

Paul Joels said he was unaware the aurora borealis would be visible when he set out to photograph the night sky in Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire.

"I was just going to shoot a simple star trail," he said.

He and a friend had initially planned to travel further away but with a threat of clouds in the forecast, they went to nearby St Mary's Church ruin instead.

"As we were setting up, my friend noticed he had weird light pollution on the live view of his camera.

"We tried various things to try and work out what was going on.

"We realised the light pollution had shifted quite quickly over a few shots and it was a bit of an odd colour for light pollution.

"It was then that we realised it was the aurora," he said.

"To double check, I went on an aurora app and Facebook group to see what was going on."

Mr Joels said it was "brilliant" to see and not something he expected so far south, inland and close to light pollution.

He said: "I've caught it once before but only very faintly.

"This was so much brighter on the back of the camera, full colours.

"We were pretty amazed."

Ryan Harris said he had always been interested in shooting the night sky and it was a dream of his to travel to Iceland to see the northern lights.

However, he managed to see the display in Ravenshead in Nottinghamshire on Sunday - just five minutes from his home.

"I have been shooting this lone tree on the horizon for two years now, so as soon as I was alerted to a possible sighting of the aurora it was an obvious decision to head to this spot.

"I was apprehensive but I'm so glad I did.

"Being able to see the aurora at one of my favourite locations to shoot was mind-blowing," he said.

Mr Harris said the aurora was visible to the naked eye, but when using the camera with a long exposure it was "truly incredible".

He added the image he took was one of his favourites.

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