The sun has chosen the next couple of days to fire zillions of particles from sunspots directly at Earth, causing a G4 strength on the scale of Geomagnetic storms, which is considered 'severe'. Today it will weaken to level G3 (still there but not so bright).
Last night, all over the UK and as far south as Italy, the reaction of those particles with our atmosphere created one heck of a lovely show... I never thought I'd see the Northern Lights as far south as Hastings, let alone that pictures of it were taken over the Matahorn!
Strangely, when my daughter called me over to look, I didn't see much at first. I thought maybe I could see a bit of a green tinge to the cloud to the north (much of which is Blacklands by the way), but it wasn't until a streak of red showed itself over to the East I could really see it.
Having unsuccessfully tried to take night-time photos on my phone before, and not believing the Aurora Borealis would show up in pictures, I nevertheless faced the camera to the beautiful sight. Amazingly, even when it wasn't bright, it showed up on the camera! So, guess who then took zillions of photos... yep! One for each particle aimed at Earth, give or take a few zillion.
Because the pictures look out over Blacklands, I feel a little justified in sharing a few of them here (sorry if some of them are not very clear; my phone isn't brilliant):
