Southern Lights put on a show for Australia as parts of England bask in a Northern glow

WHETHER you live Down Under or on top of the world, nature has been putting on a rare and spectacular display.

WHETHER you live Down Under or on top of the world, nature has been putting on a rare and spectacular display.

The aurora australis — better known as the Southern Lights — and their northern counterparts have been in fine form in recent days, with skygazers in places as far afield as the southwest tip of Western Australia and the southern United Kingdom given a real treat.

The display is caused by electronically charged particles ejected from the Sun entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

Early today, Jeff Miles captured this amazing image at Windy Harbour on WA’s south coast while on a fishing trip.

Southern Lights at Windy Harbour. Picture: Jeff Miles, Perth Weather Live.

Murray Parkinson from the Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Services said while the Sun had been “quite active” in the past few weeks, it had ejected a massive solar flare just a few days ago and this accounted for Mr Miles’ spectacular early-morning view.

“Conditions are very favourable for seeing it (the Southern Lights) at the moment,” he said.

“Last week I heard reports of auroras (the Southern Lights) even being seen from southern New South Wales.

Mr Parkinson said Australia is typically too far north to get a good view of the Southern Lights, but they can often be seen low on the horizon from Tasmania or from Victoria’s Great Ocean Road or Wilsons Promontory.

He said the best times of year to get a view were the March/April and September equinox, when the tilt of the earth brings them into view, but about once a decade they can even be seen from Sydney.

“Anywhere dark in Tasmania that has a good southern horizon is a good place to see them,” he said.

“The southern coastline of Victoria is also a great place to see them and once in a solar cycle it might even be bright enough to see from Sydney.”

The aurora borealis over St. Mary's Lighthouse and Visitor Centre, Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, England. Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire.

From the north of Scotland to as far south as Essex and Gloucestershire, parts of the UK have also been treated to nature’s greatest solar show in recent days.

The Northern Lights have also been clearly visible in places such as Orkney, Norfolk, and south Wales.

Mark Thompson, presenter of Stargazing Live, told the BBC he had not been expecting such a spectacular display.

“Three or four days ago the Sun will have thrown a lot of this stuff out in an event called a Coronal Mass Ejection, and they would have been travelling towards the Earth since,” he said.

“It all depends how active the Sun has been.”

Mr Thompson said the particles were usually pulled towards the North Pole but “if there is enough of them they will travel further down towards the equator and cause the lights to go further south.”

“It is just good luck,” Mr Thompson said. “The last time I have seen it this spectacular was probably 20 years ago.”

Germany has also had a sample of the light show.

The Northern Lights shine in the sky above the Guelper Havel river in Guelpe, northwest of Berlin.

Earlier this week, there were spectacular images of the Northern Lights from a more expected source - Greenland and Iceland.

The long-exposure images captured by astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado, 55, were notable as the lights appreaed to form creatures and rainbows in the night sky.

A view of the northern lights that look like a dragon's head above Tasiusaq farm in Greenland. Picture: Juan Carlos Casado

The northern lights form the shape of a bird above a jacuzzi filled with people at Hestheimar farm in southern Iceland. Picture: Juan Carlos Casado

Lights. Camera. Amazing: See more of Juan Carlos Casado’s photos of the Northern Lights

However, Mr Parkinson said for his money, the Yukon in Canada was probably the best place in the world to see the light show.

He said visitors would generally encounter clear skies and few artificial lights to disrupt the amazing view.

Aurora borealis northern lights in the night sky over the Yukon, Canada.