RESIDENTS across south Cumbria captured stunning photos of the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, as it appeared across the sky this week.
Shades of blue, green and purple could be seen both in rural areas and in towns and villages on the evening of Tuesday, April 16.
According to Royal Museums Greenwich, the lights we see on our planet are actually caused by the Sun. Clouds of electrically charged particles are discharged from the surface of the star, spreading out across the universe with some crashing into the Earth's magnetic field.
The particles captured by the Earth rush down towards the north and south magnetic poles and through the atmosphere, where they 'heat up' atoms and molecules above the clouds.
The patterns in the aurora are caused by how the particles are affected by the Earth's magnetic field. The gas molecules in the atmosphere give off different colours when they are heated. Purple, blue or pink are caused by nitrogen, and rarer shades of red are caused by oxygen very high above the planet's surface.
READ MORE: Northern lights spotted across South Cumbria
Ian Watts, who is a photography coach under Lakeland Photo, set up a sophisticated rig near Millom to capture the lights. He said he had two cameras running time lapse images from when it went dark to 1.30am in the morning.
"Luckily these shots were right outside my house, so I could pop inside and warm up regularly," he said. "It was Baltic that night, in the wind."
Even residents with less equipment could take images of the lights. In Witherslack, Katie Welch said she captured the Aurora out of her bedroom window with an iPhone.
Many of those in Cumbria who want to see the lights use the free website 'AuroraWatch UK', which is run by scientists at Lancaster University's physics department.
The website measures geomagnetic activity and gives alerts when there is likely to be activity.
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