Description

Blood red flashes lit up the night sky as an astronomical phenomenon became visible over Lincolnshire. Images of the spectacular Aurora Borealis natural light show, more commonly known as the Northern Lights, were captured at 10pm by amateur astronomer Nick Loven. The 24-year-old, of Wragby Road, Sudbrooke, near Lincoln, said that he leapt into action just in the nick of time to take pictures of the colourful celestial scene. "I only found out a couple of minutes before that it was going to happen," he said. "There's a website that tips you off on good times to catch it. I ran down stairs and told everyone, but they all looked at me as though I was a lunatic. "I convinced mum to come with me and we jumped in the car and drove to Sudbrooke Park." The Northern Lights occur when particles radiated by the sun, enter the atmosphere at the poles where the magnetic field is at its weakest. The light display, which can include flashes of red, green and orange in the sky, is almost constant around the arctic circle. Here an enormous oval of light rests as the particles enter the atmosphere. But when there is a large flare on the sun, which happened last Wednesday, more particles enter the atmosphere and the oval expands south. This is when countries like Britain experience the lights. By Friday it had reached Lincolnshire. "It was a truly beautiful sight," said Mr Loven. "It started off with a green glow on the horizon and then red lights skipped through the sky. "I've been waiting five years for it - that was the last time it could be seen in Lincolnshire." Freelance astronomer Paul Money also saw the display. "It was a very good example of the Northern Lights," he said. "It's a spectacular sight, majestic, colourful - delightful really." The astronomy expert said he had seen the spectacle 33 times in the last 24 years and that most of them had been in Lincolnshire. "Despite that, most people find it difficult to catch," he said. "You have to be away from street lights and the radiation generated by towns and cities, but if you do manage to catch a glimpse it is well worth it. "When you see the rays of light coming down from the sky you are actually looking at the earth's magnetic field lines - it's an amazing experience and something that's definitely worth viewing." And Mr Loven's mum Pauline (50) agreed. "It was a rare opportunity and I'm glad I took it," she said. "It's hard to get a feel for it from the photos, but it is so dynamic. "Clouds of light form and then puff, they're gone, only to re-appear somewhere else - it was magical." To keep track of likely viewing times for the northern lights log on to www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/aurorawatch.