Bright illumination of night sky after Northern Lights

Bright illumination of night sky after Northern Lights

15 May 2024

STARS were not the only thing visible in the night sky last weekend.

On Friday evening, people throughout the district pointed their cameras skyward to capture the mesmeric Northern Lights.

Not usually spotted over Northern Ireland, the lights were visible after one of the strongest geomagnetic storms for years to hit Earth.

This scintillating display is also known as the Aurora Borealis. 

Social media was inundated with people uploading images of the phenomena, with many throughout the district able to see the Northern Lights clearly due to limited light pollution.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has rated the storm in its top category G5, the first extreme storm since October 2003, which are sometimes referred to as Halloween Storms.

The Northern Lights appear as bright, swirling curtains of lights in the nigh sky and range in colour from free to pink and scarlet.

It is caused by charged particles from the sun hitting gases in the Earth’s atmosphere with the weekend’s mesmerising light show still a topic of conversation across the district.