North York Moors Lone Tree Aurora | Photography Print

Some nights in the field are good. Some are great. And then, very occasionally, the sky does something so extraordinary that you struggle to find the words for it afterwards.

The 12th of August 2024 was one of those nights.

We had originally planned to photograph the Perseid meteor shower from one of our favourite spots on the North York Moors. A lone tree standing atop an open moor, the only tree for miles, with panoramic views across the dark landscape in every direction. From here, the distant town of Whitby glows softly on the horizon above the coast, but the rest of the moorland stretches away in near-perfect darkness. It is one of our most treasured locations.

What greeted us that night was far beyond what we had planned for. The northern sky erupted in aurora, vivid pinks, greens, purples and blues, with brilliant white columns stretching high into the sky, reaching up towards Cassiopeia and dancing side to side. The display was strong enough to be visible to the naked eye. Above us, the summer Milky Way arched across the sky in its full glory. Meteors blazed in every direction. Perseids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids, so many that we lost count, including several brilliant fireballs that left glowing trails hanging in the air. Later in the night, Jupiter and Mars rose together, appearing strikingly close to one another, adding yet another layer to an already extraordinary scene.

And then there was the lightning. A dramatic electrical storm rolled through the distant clouds and lasted all the way through the night into the pre-dawn hours, sending powerful flashes across the horizon. Aurora above, meteors overhead, Milky Way arching across the sky, planets rising, and lightning on the horizon all at once, all surrounding the lone tree on the moors.

This photograph is a single frame taken from a timelapse we captured that evening. The full timelapse is available to watch on our YouTube channel @astrodoguk.

Printed on premium fine art paper with professional inks, every detail — from the aurora's vivid colours to the lone tree silhouetted against the glowing sky — is preserved with gallery-quality clarity.

• All prints available in A4, A3, and A2
• A4 prints supplied with a 12" × 16" card mount (black or white)
• A3 prints supplied with a 20" × 16" card mount (black or white)
• A2 prints supplied unmounted
• All photographic print orders are printed and hand-mounted to order
• All photographic print orders shipped in specialist protective art packaging