Northern Lights set to be visible over Preston and Lancashire during Saturday

Northern Lights over Beacon Fell Pic hollie_reclayaim

After Friday night’s light show over the skies of Preston and Lancashire we’ll be looking skywards again.

The Northern Lights – or the Aurora – was seen around 11pm on Friday evening and it’s expected to be visible again during Saturday (11 May) evening.

An amber alert has been issued by AuroraWatch UK saying the Northern Lights will be most visible across the UK around 1am on Sunday (12 May) before peaking at around 5am. Their data from a Lancaster data station says 11pm and 3am will be the peak times in and around Lancashire.

The Met Office has produced this clip showing the probability of an aurora sighting by location and time.

Although geomagnetic activity is not expected to be as strong tonight, there’s still a good chance of aurora sightings, especially across the northern half of the UK

There could be some visibility further south, especially with long-exposure cameras pic.twitter.com/d64YEuuI8R
— Met Office (@metoffice) May 11, 2024

During Friday night people flocked to post pictures of the Aurora in full flow over the city, while others awoke to find they’d missed the breath-taking light show.

For those trying to get a photo of the Aurora then you’ll need to consider finding somewhere that has good dark skies away from built up areas.

The Northern Lights were clearly visible over the city

The BBC has these tips from an amateur photographer which include switching off the flash on your phone or camera, set the camera to night mode, adjust your slide from three to five seconds and keep your phone or camera as steady as possible.

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