Northern lights and Perseid meteor shower: your pictures

silhouette of a tree and a hill with striking image of purple and green of the aurora. Can also see white dots of stars and a streak of a shooting starBBC Weather Watchers / Andrew Hawkes
Simon King
Lead Weather Presenter

Sky gazers last night were treated not only to the Perseid meteor shower but a spectacular display of the Northern lights.

After a strong geomagnetic storm in the early hours of Monday morning, the aurora was seen as far south as Norfolk.

This came as the Perseid meteor shower reached its peak, when up to 100 meteors an hour can be visible in the night sky.

There'll be another opportunity to see the meteor shower on Monday night with clear skies across many parts of the United Kingdom.

silhouette of the coastline and dark purples and reds indicating the aurora. Few white dots of stars and a shooting star shown as a streak of white lightBBC Weather Watchers / Simon Luckman 1988

The Northern lights were seen as far south as Norfolk with a glimpse of a shooting star - the Perseid meteor shower.

How to see the Perseid meteor shower

The Perseid meteor shower will still be visible on Monday and Tuesday nights, especially with skies expected to be clear.

For the best possible view, try to get to an area where there are dark skies, away from street lights and where you can get a clear view of the whole night sky.

Give your eyes around 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness and either sit or lie down and you should start to see some shooting stars - the meteors.

For an even better chance to see up to 100 meteors in an hour, you might want to get a stargazing app and find the Perseus constellation and look in that direction.

image of the night sky with many white dots of stars but right in the middle of the picture a large streak of white light showing a shooting star as part of the perseid meteor showerBBC Weather Watchers / Coastal JJ

The Perseid meteor shower reaching its peak activity a captured beautifully in West Sussex

night sky with many tiny white dots of stars and a streak of white light of a shooting starBBC Weather Watchers / Jack March

At its peak there could be around 100 meteors visible an hour during the annual Perseid meteor shower

looking out to sea with some cloud in the distance and the northern lights shining bright in the sky. Purples and greens peaking out of the cloudBBC Weather Watchers / Saf37y

The aurora seen in Aberdeenshire on Monday night by a BBC Weather Watcher

silhoutte of clouds in the night sky but behind the bright lights of the aurora glowing pink and purpleBBC Weather Watchers / mikeiom

Weather Watchers looking out for the Perseid meteor shower were treated to the Northern lights such as this over the Isle of Man

silhouette of a hill and some bright city lights at the bottom of the photo with streaks of purple and pink of the aurora in the sky.BBC Weather Watchers / myGuidedWalks

Aurora visible looking north from East Cheshire and towards Manchester.

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