In recent days, the ethereal aurora graced our skies and many Weather & Radar users managed to capture the spectacle.

Weather & Radar user Liam Brennan captured his images across different locations in Northern Ireland, though they were also seen across many other parts of the UK and Ireland.

In reality, the Northern Lights are not quite as intense as they tend to appear in the pictures. Often you cannot even see them at all with the naked eye.

Our eyes struggle to recognise colours in the dark, and we can also lengthen the exposure time on our cameras to help capture their light.

This strong, celestial spectacle is likely during periods of strong solar activity, and a particularly large number of plasma particles from the sun reached us over the weekend.

The aurora weren't just spotted in the UK, much of northern, central and eastern Europe got a glimpse too. The following time-lapse video was created in Thaining, in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany. Though for some, cloud skewed the view.

The colours spotted were also rare, particularly through Germany and all the way down to the Alps. Auroras are more commonly seen as a green colour, for several reasons.

A combination of factors including oxygen amount, altitude, dominant wavelength and human vision can make green the most prevalent colour. However, rare red shades at higher altitudes were seen across parts of Germany in recent days.

If you also managed to capture the magical light of the aurora, feel free to share it with us! You can always find the uploader in the app or via the link here.