Northern Lights ignite Irish skies with spectacular displays (photos)

Northern Lights glittered across skies over northern parts of Ireland last night, dazzling skywatchers to the extent #nothernlights trended on Twitter, where users shared snaps of the Aurora Borealis over the island.

The Northern Lights also rippled their way over the UK night last. In Ireland, photographers snapped shots of the cosmic red and green light show in Co Donegal and Northern Ireland, and there have even been reports of the Northern Lights being visible as far south as Co Kerry.

Aurora Borealis are the result of electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the Earth’s atmosphere colliding with gas molecules in the atmosphere, according to The Northern Lights Centre. The subsequent energy from these collisions are given off as light.

The light show – which is known as Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere and Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere – are usually most visible above the Earth’s magnetic north and south poles.

Here’s a collection of photos from last night’s Northern Lights display over Ireland that Twitter users shared on the microblogging site:

^{Over Derry City. Photo by Owen Anderson}

^{Photo by Martin McKenna}

^{Elephant Rock, Co Antrim. Photo by Stephen Wallace}

^{Fanad, Co Donegal. Photo by Rita Wilson}

^{Inishowen, Co Donegal. Photo by Brendan Diver}

^{Photo by Inishowenphotography.com}

^{Malin Head, Co Donegal. Photo by Patryk Sadowski}

^{Over Northern Ireland}

^{Rathlin Island, Co Antrim. Tweeted by @prowldawg}

^{Tweeted by @darrenbhoy}

^{The Giant’s Causeway, Co Antrim. Photo by Martina Gardiner Photography}

^{There’s one in every crowd.}