The Northern Lights have been visible across parts of the North East this week, treating skygazers to a rare sight of the phenomenon.
The Met Office forecast suggests the display, called the Aurora Borealis, could be visible over parts of the region where skies are clear.
Photographers in Hartlepool, County Durham and Northumberland were treated to the skyline delights of the Northern Lights - and have captured some amazing photos.
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For those that have seen it so far might not be so lucky again.
Professor Don Pollacco, department of physics at the University of Warwick, said it would be difficult to predict exactly where the Northern Lights would be visible.
He said: “To predict exactly where you can see the Northern Lights is difficult as conditions can change quickly.
“However, one thing is for sure, and that is that you are unlikely to see them from a brightly lit city environment – you need to go somewhere dark and look towards the northern horizon (look for the North Star).
Here are some of the best images from our camera club members:
Terry Piper
Paul Gale
Paul Oakland
Craig Liddle
“So, you would preferably be in the countryside away from street lights. Of course it also needs to clear.”
Explaining what the lights are, he added: “The Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) are caused by the interaction of particles coming from the sun, the solar wind, with the Earth’s atmosphere – channelled to the polar regions by the Earth’s magnetic field.
“It’s actually a bit like iron filings and the field of a bar magnetic.
“The solar wind contains more particles when there are sun spots, as these are regions on the sun’s surface where the magnetic field is interacting with the plasma in the Sun, and the particles can be released.
“Once the particles are channelled into the Earth’s atmosphere they interact with molecules and have distinctive colours (eg oxygen molecules produce green light, nitrogen red light etc) and patterns such as light emissions that look like curtains or spotlights.
“These shapes over change quickly over timescales of minutes/seconds.”
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