If you were up late on the evening of Sunday the 7th of August and noticed a strange pinkish glow to the north, well done - you saw the northern lights.

There was a display that night that was visible as far south as Norfolk, and was seen from Cumbria too, by those who had gaps in the cloud.

As most of the displays we see from our part of the world are it was really just a background pink-green glow, with a few hints of rays, nothing like the crazily speeded-up and enhanced displays always shown on TV, but it was still interesting to see, and was hopefully a warm up act for bigger and better displays in the Autumn.

The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks this week, reaching its maximum overnight on August 12th/13th.

Unfortunately, the big bright Moon will reduce the number of Perseid shooting stars we see - only the brightest ones will be visible through its glare - but it will still be worth heading out late on that evening and taking a look.

You'll need to be somewhere with a low and flat horizon to the north-east, as far away from light pollution as you can get. Go out around 11pm and then just wait.

Eventually you'll see a shooting star skip across the sky, coming from below the distinctive "W" shaped constellation of Cassiopeia.

If you're going out to watch the Perseids, just be aware that real life meteor showers are nothing like how they're shown on TV and in films. You won't see several shooting stars zipping across the sky at the same time, or flurries of half a dozen one after the other.

Typically, during a meteor shower you see one, then wait, and wait, then another and then a long wait.

A lot of absolutely nothing happens during a meteor shower, but the sight of a bright shooting star, or even a fireball, streaking across the sky, sputtering, and flaring before it fades away, makes all the yawning and waiting worthwhile.