A public talk at the Blue Dot Festival, Jodrell Bank, Cheshire.

Seeing the northern lights is high on a lot of people’s bucket list, but the aurora borealis can be an elusive phenomenon. Do you really have to travel to the frozen northern parts of the planet to see them, or can they be seen closer to home? What causes the aurora? And what should you expect? Do the lights really look they do in pictures, or are those epic visuals down to fancy cameras and photoshop trickery? Prof Jim Wild will guide you through the science and the hype in this exploration of the magical northern lights