Last night we went on a little adventure to try and capture some photographs of lightning, but then an amazing Noctilucent Cloud (NLC) display took centre stage!
Noctilucent Clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, forming around 80km up in the mesosphere. They're only visible during summer months at high latitudes, when the sun illuminates them from below the horizon ā giving them an ethereal, electric-blue glow that's truly unlike anything else in the night sky.
Our Celestial Adventure
Last night there were a lot of summer storms making their way across the UK, bringing along some much-needed rain and also some exciting thunder and lightning.
We love the excitement of chasing storms, and when the thunder and rain arrived at Scarborough, we decided to gather our camera gear and see if we could catch some lightning.
We initially headed out to Scarborough North Bay with our cameras, and our canine companions Luna and Selena.
Luna and Selena had a great time playing on the beach whilst we tried to capture some of the lightning that was raging out to sea. Unfortunately, we were a little late heading out and didn't manage to catch the best shows of lightning. We did however manage to catch the odd strike and when we have time will look through our photos and see if any of our captures were good.
After a little while as the storm continued to pass over, the clouds began to part and we could see that in the gaps where the light blue twilight skies were shining through, there was also a beautifully bright and large NLC display!
Unfortunately, the clouds were blocking most of the NLC from view and so we decided to head to Whitby where the cloud radar was suggesting it may be clearer for most of the night.
As we were travelling along the way to Whitby, the clouds began to disappear revealing the incredible NLC display. The Waxing Gibbous Moon was gracing the skies too and looked amazing, creating a warm orange glow in the Western skies. We also saw some beautiful deer as we travelled across the moors.
Upon arriving at Whitby, we decided to head to Whitby Abbey, as we thought the Abbey would make a fantastic foreground for our photographs. Once we arrived, we quickly set up our gear and started snapping away. The Noctilucent Clouds were incredible, painting the skies with ethereal wisps of light on top of the stunning warm colours of the twilight skies.
Luna and Selena had a great time playing too whilst we captured photographs of the amazing scene before us.
After a little while once the skies started to become too bright to see the NLC clearly, we decided to head back home and look through some of our photographs.
All in all, it was an amazing evening of exciting storm chasing and beautiful Noctilucent Clouds.
Our Photograph of NLC Above Whitby Abbey
We captured many photographs last night and thought it would be nice to share one of them with you. We hope you like it. š
In this photograph you can see the beautiful and historic ruins of Whitby Abbey silhouetted against the stunning colours of the Northern twilight skies and the magical ethereal display of Noctilucent Clouds. In the close foreground is a sea of long grass that was dancing in the breeze, being illuminated by a nearby security light.
š· Camera ā Nikon Z8a
š Lens ā Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S
š Settings ā 1.6", ISO 500, f/3.5
What Else Is in the Night Sky Throughout June?
If you would like to know more about the rest of the celestial treats that can be seen in the skies throughout this June, please watch our Night Sky Guide video for June 2026 on our Facebook, or on our YouTube channel. If you head over to YouTube, please subscribe to make sure you never miss any celestial events.
Share Your Experiences and Photographs
We always love hearing about your celestial adventures and seeing your photographs! If you headed out to witness or capture photos of this special event or any other sights in the night sky, please feel free to share your stories and photos in the comments below. š
Wishing You All Starry Skies
We hope you enjoy the photograph we captured, and as always ā if you head out to enjoy the night sky any time soon, we wish you good luck and clear skies! šāØš