Video Of Aurora With Rare Cloud Phenomenon

A rare celestial show has taken place above the north of Scotland, leaving the skies glowing magnificently.

A time lapse film shows both noctilucent clouds and aurora dancing across the sky on a single night above Caithness earlier this month.

It is unusual to see either phenomena, and quite a sight for sky gazers to see them together.

Noctilucent - or "night-shining" - clouds are made of sunlight-reflecting ice crystals and, as the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, they are normally too faint to be seen.

The video shows both the variety of clouds and how their structure varies over time.

The lower clouds appear dark or fast moving and about halfway through the video they are joined by aurora.

Aurora is a natural light display in high-latitude regions and is caused by the collision of charged particles with atoms in the atmosphere.

In northern latitudes the effect is known as the aurora borealis and its southern counterpart is aurora australis.