The Northern Lights could be spotted in Scotland this Christmas weekend due to a solar storm.
A celestial light display is expected on Thursday night and early on Christmas Eve due to a minor geomagnetic storm, according to the Met Office's space weather forecast.
The best times to spot the lights are between 10pm and midnight.
It's during this period when disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere - which is what causes the lights - are at their peak, says AuroraWatch UK.
The Met Office says: "The auroral oval is likely to be slightly enhanced at high latitudes late on the 23rd into the 24th."
Onlookers could catch a glimpse of the otherworldly spectacle, also known as aurora borealis, if the weather doesn't get in the way.
Unfortunately, tonight is set to be cloudy in Scotland with spells of rain and snow over the hills. It will be drier elsewhere in the UK overnight.
If you want to give it a shot anyway, a hill would be an ideal spot given its elevated location and unobstructed views from buildings and lights. Also, the further north you are, the better.
What causes Northern Lights?
Wondering what the Northern Lights are in the first place?
Tonight's display is due to a coronal mass ejection - an eruption of particles and plasma from the sun's atmosphere - caused a solar storm that occurred at 11:36am on December 20.
It's when these solar storms disturb the Earth's magnetic field that we see the Northern Lights.
"The sun continuously produces a solar wind, made of charged particles that flows outward into the solar system," explains NASA.
"When the solar wind reaches Earth’s magnetic field, it can cause magnetic reconnection, an explosive process that allows charged particles from space to accelerate into the atmosphere."
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