Wrap up, get out of the city – see the rare beauty of the northern lights across Britain tonight | Robin Scagell

Social media has brought sky-watchers together to view an event that may be seen as far south as the home counties

Compare the bucket lists of your friends and the chances are that seeing the northern lights will be on many of them. So the news that, instead of trekking northwards to Norway or Iceland, you can just step out of your back door to see them sounds like a dream come true. In the past couple of nights many people in the UK have done just that, and in some cases as far south as the home counties.

But is it as easy as that, and what are the chances of seeing something tonight?