Last night, people across the UK enjoyed the beautiful spectacle of the aurora borealis in the sky.

Unusually, it wasn’t just people in the north of Scotland who were able to catch the vibrant Northern Lights – according to the Met Office, they reached as far south as Shropshire.

On Twitter, the national weather service wrote: ‘A coronal hole high speed stream arrived this evening combined with a rather fast coronal mass ejection leading to #Aurora sightings across the UK.’

But don’t be too bothered if you missed them: the weather service has said the lights could be just as strong tonight.

So where and when would you be in with your best chance of catching them?

According to the website AuroraWatch UK, the geomagnetic activity that produces the display will be strongest this evening between 9pm and 10pm, and then again between 11pm and 12am.

In fact, the activity is so strong the scientists who run the site have coloured the alert red, meaning ‘it is likely that aurora will be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK’.

That sounds like good news – but there are a few other factors that you’ll need to keep in mind if you’re desperate to catch the Northern Lights.

One is light pollution. If you live in the middle of a big city – or even on the outskirts of one – the chances of you being able to see the subtly changing colours in the sky are slim.

The further south your city is, the slimmer that chance gets.

The best places to escape light pollution in the UK are Snowdonia, the Lake District, the Scottish Borders and, best of all, the north-west Highlands.

But there are places scattered across the country dedicated to maintaining the darkest skies possible, even in cities like London and Birmingham.

You can find your nearest one using the Dark Sky Discovery website.

Aside from low light pollution, you should also try to find a place that’s got as clear a view as possible towards the horizon, not blocked off by tall buildings or a mountainous landscape.

However, even if you’ve found the perfect spot in the middle of nowhere on completely flat ground, the final factor can still ruin things: the weather.

The most stunning aurora display could be taking place in the sky above you, but if there’s a layer of cloud in between, it’s no good at all.

Going back to the Met Office, the forecast for tonight unfortunately looks a bit overcast for most of us.

The service predicts that at 11pm tonight, when the Northern Lights should be at their strongest, the only cloudless skies in the UK will be along the west coast of Scotland and Inner Hebrides.

There may be clear skies over parts of Shropshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire, but the aurora is unlikely to be more than a faint glow so far south.

Nevertheless, it’s a great excuse for getting out the house on a chilly winter’s night and watching the skies – you could end up lucky.

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