KEEN photographer Paul Mortimer took these photos last night (February 10) of the Northern Lights over York.

Paul, who has lived in York all his life and runs a tattoo studio in Osbaldwick, spotted the light show low in the sky.

Paul, who is a member of The Press Camera Club, said: "The Northern Lights came out to play last night between 6pm and 11pm, this photo was taken from the outskirts of York away from the street lamp light pollution. Strong pink colours on top of Green beaming down to Earth, caused by a Filament eruption on the Sun a couple of days ago. The Earth's powerful magnetic field pulling the solar gases back down to Earth giving us the changing colours that are caused by different solar gases colliding with atoms in our Earth's atmosphere which excite power by way of light. 

"The Aurora Borealis is centralised around the Aurora Oval in the Arctic regions due to the magnetism being greater towards the poles of the planet. If the solar storm is strong enough the Aurora Oval can move further southwards allowing us to view it from lower mid latitudes such as York. 

"With the Sun starting to creep out of Solar Minimum now these events will get more and more regular over the next 5 years. This is my fourth York Aurora in as many months which shows how regular these events are happening lately.

"After just returning from Iceland two days ago from 14 day Aurora Photography trip I was quite pleased to see the Northern Lights had followed me back home to York."