A MAN who waited half a century to see the Northern Lights got a real spectacle of a show.

Former art teacher David Coggins (pictured), 56, of Lammack Road, Blackburn, was six years old when he last had the chance of witnessing them. He said: "I remember as a child waking up one morning and my mum and dad telling me that there had been a wonderful display. I was really cross with them for not waking me."

The 'Aurora Borealis,' or 'Northern Lights' as they are called in the northern hemisphere, are a familiar and often beautiful sight in high latitudes caused by an atmospheric condition. They act like a rainbow in that their apparent position depends on where you see them from. They often have a very striking appearance and, particularly during the Dark Ages, were viewed with a certain amount of superstition.

But 50 years on, David was not about to make the same mistake twice and he watched the amazing night-time display from Mellor on Thursday, where he spent about two hours looking into the dark sky. On a night when most of us were expecting four of the brightest objects in the night sky -- the moon Jupiter, Saturn and Mars -- to join to form a dramatic celestial spectacle, not to be seen for another 20 years, David saw something completely unexpected.

"There was a spectacular display over East Lancashire. I noticed something when I was putting my car away. When I looked in my garden it was apparent it was more extensive.

"The whole of the northern sky was festooned with milky white light which turned to a sort of red wine colour," he said.

And because nobody had predicted what he was witnessing, Mr Coggins jokingly said that he first put it down to the effects of the long, single malt whisky he had had.

He thought he was dreaming, especially after missing the last appearance of Halley's Comet and going to France to see last year's total eclipse and missing that as well because of bad weather.

He said he might even get around to drawing what he had seen, since he had not taken his camera and that it might even be worth something one day.

Colin Donnelly, spokesman for Met Office headquarters in Berkshire, said they had had lots of reports of the sightings from as far away as Berkshire to places in Leeds.

Mr Donnelly said that people had reported red colours in the sky as well as some green, which were all connected to a fairly strong display of the 'Northern Lights.'

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