Merry Dancers. Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis. Call them what you may. When I was growing up, these fantastically bright, dancing lights would flicker across the night sky, the indoor light and telly would be hastily switched off and my brother and I would be called to the window to see. We’d crowd around the west facing kitchen window or rush to the bathroom next door, eyes turned skywards. We’d occasionally open the window and let the ice cold rush of air in. And we’d watch in wonder. This phenomenon.

“The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding”

On 7 March this year, I’d enjoyed a day out with the children and their Grandma at Skaill and had driven a long, slow drive home on the icy roads. We arrived late and rushed to fit in baths and supper, before everyone was finally asleep after 10pm. Only then did I notice I had two messages from friends, simply saying “Northern Lights!!!”. True enough, there they were, lighting up the sky above the farmhouse. Although not as bright as I’d seen them in the past. And annoyingly, I’d run my camera battery flat at our beach trip earlier. So, I stuck it on charge and tried desperately to swot up on exposure settings for night time shooting. During this time, my partner helpfully showed me photos on his Facebook feed of everyones captures. Thanks. I eventually headed out after 11pm, disappointed and irritated knackered and bloody freezing that I’d probably missed out. And I was right, although the sky was bright in parts, there was none of the amazing colour that I’d just seen online. But I found a good spot anyway, set up my tripod, dialled in my readings and took the first shot. When I looked at the screen I was thrilled! All that green! For some reason, it wasn’t visible to my naked eye but shone bright when captured. I wandered, alone, outside in the dark until after midnight when sanity kicked in and a 6.30am alarm call beckoned. But to be honest, it was such an amazing display I could have stayed out under that green sky all night.

Here are my moments. Im quite pleased at my first dip into nighttime photography. What a night to learn on.

I posted a few photos on my twitter account in the early hours before falling quickly into a cold induced deep sleep. Annoyingly, I woke to a tweet from Sky News asking for my permission to use my photo and I hadn’t replied. Drat.

These particular lights were spotted as far down the country as Oxfordshire, which is relatively unheard off! I’d love to hear of your experiences with the Merry Dancers? What do you call them? Thanks so much for reading x