Photographers capture stunning aurora display across Cumbria

Stargazers across the country have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights, also known as the aurora borealis, several times already in 2024.

Northern lights at Calbeck (Image: Alan Graham/NS Camera Club) This latest appearance gave Cumbrians another chance to see what is described as "one of the most spectacular displays in the night sky".

The Northern Lights are caused by charged particles from the sun hitting gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

The colours occur due to different gases in the Earth's atmosphere being energised by the charged particles.

Taken in Langstrath valley, Borrowdale in the Lake District by Mark Hetherington (Image: Mark Hetherington) Nitrogen and oxygen are the two most common gases in the atmosphere, with nitrogen emitting purple, blue and pink colours and oxygen emitting green.

The aurora also coincided with the appearance of the Perseid meteor in the earth’s atmosphere.

The event is associated with the dusty debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years.

The view across Derwentwater towards Keswick (Image: Phil Royal) The meteoroids from the comet, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the Earth’s atmosphere at 36 miles per second, to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.

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Across Cumbria, photographers set up their lenses to try and catch a glimpse of the elusive meteorological event.

Alan Graham captured the ‘fantastic’ aurora at Caldbeck whilst Phil Royal pictured the scene at Derwentwater.

“The pillars with some colours were visible to the eye - in fact the greens were so bright it looked like dawn rising behind Skiddaw,” said Phil.

The aurora was pictured across Cumbria with readers seeing the northern lights in Maryport, Frizington, Wigton and Pooley Bridge.