Matlock stargazer captures stunning shot of Northern Lights over Derbyshire

As the name suggests, the naturally-occurring light show caused by solar winds hitting the Earth's upper atmosphere is usually most visible from the north of Scotland and higher latitudes – but overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, September 13, people reported seeing the aurora borealis as far south as Cornwall.

For Matlock resident Nigel Bradbury, who usually works underground as a guide at Blue John Cavern in Castleton, the sight was nothing new, but it was one of the few times he has been able to catch it without boarding a plane.

He said: “As a Northern Lights lecturer, I must have made 500 trips to see the aurora and guided about 100,000 people through the experience, usually in Iceland, Norway or flying just north of the Shetland Islands.

“I’ve seen the lights several times in Matlock but this was probably the best display here since March, 1989. Often what you’ll see is a homogenous, featureless glow and this started out that way then exploded into needles of green, red and blue. It was blazing away for several hours with some beautiful details.”

Nigel ventured out alone and set up his camera at the top of Salters Lane, minutes from his home on the Hooley Estate, leaving the shutter open for six seconds on each shot to capture features not always visible to the naked eye.

He said: “It’s not such a rare sight in the UK, but most people don’t go out to look up, or often when it should be visible there’s too much cloud around. That lookout spot is very convenient as it has a flat northern horizon.

“The most important thing last night were the crystal clear conditions. With light pollution from the all the cities, the Peak District isn’t dark at night now and if there’s any moisture in the air then all that light gets reflected back down. You often get big cloudbanks rolling in from Cheshire to the north too but last night was totally crisp and dry.”

He added: “Some experts thought the coronal mass ejection from the sun would miss the Earth so it was a bit of a surprise that it ended up hitting, so I jus grabbed my camera and went out to see how it would turn out.”

A long-time member of the Chesterfield Astronomical Society, which has an observatory in Newbold, Nigel says his own fascination with the night sky began as a very young boy and estimates his “head planetarium” now contains the names and locations of up to 40,000 stars.

In addition to his aurora tours, he regularly visits clubs and societies all over the UK to give talks and can sometimes be spotted out with his telescope around Matlock, Chesterfield and Buxton, sharing his knowledge with punters as they leave the pubs on a Saturday night.

If you would like to invite him to speak at any event, write to nigelrbradbury[at]gmail.com.

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