As you may have heard, earlier this month one of the strongest geomagnetic storms for years hit, allowing large parts of the world on the weekend of 10 May a glimpse of the spectacle that is the Northern Lights.
To be able to stand in my garden on the west coast of Wales and see the faintest trace of the aurora with my naked eye, and to then watch the sky fill with colour through the lens of my iPhone camera, was something that I had never dreamed possible outside of the most northern parts of Europe.
It was truly magical.
But what proved even more magical as the night unfolded, was how it became a shared experience – as friends and family across the country (and indeed the world) shared their photographs and excitement in real time through messenger apps and social media.
From my daughter:
A friend in the East of England::
Another friend in Southern England:
My son hanging out of his bedroom window:
A friend in the heart of a Welsh city centre:
And a few hours later, a friend in New Zealand:
What a night! What a cosmos!