How to see the northern lights in the UK tonight

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, had been seen as far south as Cornwall within the UK on Sunday night time, and are prone to be seen once more on Monday night time. Here is the right way to spot them, says Stargazing at Home columnist Abigail Beall

By Abigail Beall

On Sunday night, the northern lights, or aurora borealis, had been seen additional south than traditional, with glimpses even doable in Cornwall, in south-west England. These shows of inexperienced and pink flickering glows within the night time sky, created by particles from the solar, are a marvel to behold. But if you happen to missed them on Sunday, don’t fear, there may be nonetheless an opportunity to see them this week – significantly on Monday.

What are the northern lights?

They are generated by the photo voltaic wind – a stream of charged particles travelling from the outer layer of the solar, or corona. Bursts of photo voltaic wind, referred to as photo voltaic flares, slam into Earth’s magnetic discipline, which acts like a defend across the planet that deflects many of the particles. But at its weakest factors across the poles, some penetrate into the higher ambiance, the place they collide with and excite, or energise, gasoline molecules. As these molecules lose power once more, they launch photons of sunshine that make the aurorae.

The sort of excited molecule, together with the altitude of the collisions, decide the color of the aurorae. The most typical are pale yellow and inexperienced from oxygen molecules round 120 to 180 kilometres up. Less frequent are pink aurorae, generated from oxygen round 200 km above the bottom, whereas red-purple aurorae come from nitrogen beneath 100 km.

When is the most effective time to see the northern lights?

If the photo voltaic wind is energetic, the aurora may be seen as quickly as it’s darkish.

Where will the northern lights be seen tonight?

The stronger the photo voltaic flare, the additional south they are going to be seen. The particles take round a day to journey to Earth, so we will predict as much as a day upfront how robust the aurora is prone to be. The UK’s Met Office says the lights are prone to be seen there once more on Monday night time, even perhaps in central or southern England. For the remainder of the week, control forecasts just like the Met Office and different aurora prediction apps.

When must you search for the lights?

There are web sites and organisations monitoring the solar that may give a forecast for the approaching day, and even week. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site, for instance, offers observations for the previous three days together with 30-minute predictions of photo voltaic exercise. This is measured utilizing the planetary Ok-index, or Kp, on a scale from 0 to 9. The higher the worth, the upper the exercise. To see the lights with the bare eye in central England, a Kp worth of 8 is normally mandatory. The free app AuroraWatch UK additionally has half-hourly aurora forecasts, and you may arrange an e mail alert in it to be sure you are prepared for any celestial gentle reveals.

How are you able to see the northern lights?

Get to a darkish spot as removed from any gentle air pollution as doable. If you might be not sure the place to go, discover someplace darkish and look in the direction of the northern horizon. Then that you must wait and let your eyes modify. But don’t anticipate aurorae within the beautiful, vivid colors proven in photographs. When you view them with the bare eye, the aurorae are a lot subtler and may be difficult to identify the primary time you attempt. If you’ve a digicam with a digital show, wanting via the show might help verify that you’re aurorae, as generally they’ll seem greenish-white to the attention, however very inexperienced within the digicam. Keep a watch on the climate forecast, too, as you received’t see any northern lights when you have a cloudy sky.

How to take images of the show

Most smartphone cameras will have the ability to choose up the inexperienced hues of the northern lights. If you’ve a digital digicam and a tripod, attempt an extended publicity with the shutter velocity set to some seconds.