THE skies above Inverclyde were full of light and colour last night as one of the world's most iconic natural phenomena was visible from our shores. 

Skywatchers gazed upwards to see the aurora borealis in all its glory on a crisp and clear night. 

Also known as the Northern Lights, the stunning display becomes visible when solar flares from the sun are directed towards the earth and come into contact with the earth's magnetic field. 

Local people grabbed their cameras to capture shots of the amazing event and we've gathered a few of the best photos together. 

(Image: Stephen McAllister)

Stephen McAllister, Inverclyde astronomy expert, who shared several of his stunning photos of the night sky, said:  “We seem to be lucky just now, it seems to go in cycles.

“We’re in a wee spell where there’s a lot of solar activity and that’s producing more frequent aurora displays.

“We had great clear skies last night which were very helpful for folk.

(Image: Bob Dolan)

“Sometimes a bright moon can wash out the aurora but the moon was down and out of the road by about 11 .30pm.

“You could see the aurora as a faint green smudge above the horizon but to see it in images, you want to be using long exposure shots.

“To get good photos, you need to get away from the town and the light pollution.

(Image: Linz Houston) “I was using three to five-minute exposures which is very long, and an app called Expert RAW which realigns exposures one on top of each other so the stars are not trailing.

“There were two spikes last night from 8-9pm and than again from 12-1am.

“It’s also good to check the weather and use the Glendale app and aurorawatch.co.uk for alerts.

(Image: Suzy M Gray) Thanks to everyone who posted amazing shots of the light show on the Greenock Telegraph Camera Club page. 

We'll be keeping a close eye on stargazing apps to find out when the aurora is due to grace Inverclyde's skies again.