There was a fine display of noctilucent clouds (NLC) in Lund last night. I had heard that there might be a display of northern lights, so I left my Canon EOS 750D outside, pointing northwards and taking 15-sec exposures all night at ISO 200.

You can see the whole video that I recorded on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwev9hQy_JA

In the event, the northern lights didn't come this far south -- I think they were visible about 100 miles north of here. But as a consolation prize, I picked up a bright display of NLC instead.

NLC are caused by ice crystals forming at 80km altitude - high enough to be illuminated by the Sun even when the ground below is in darkness. They're only seen at high latitudes, and curiously there are no recorded observations of them before 1885, although they are now quite common.

This was my second sighting of NLC since moving to Lund, and once again, I was struck by how bright they were - I could see them out the window without turning the light out. They persisted until eventually fading into dawn twilight.