Dapple Grey
Tartan of the Day
Jul 11
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Fall Aurora Watch
"When the mirrie dancers play, they are like to slay"
~Scottish proverb
The night sky beckons! In Scottish folklore, the Northern Lights are known as Na Fir Chlis—“the Nimble Men” or “the Merry Dancers”—a poetic name for the shimmering waves of light that seem to dance across the heavens, created when energetic particles from the sun collide with the Earth’s magnetic fields near the poles.
The term aurora borealis was introduced in 1619 by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who combined Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, with Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind. Yet long before Galileo, storytellers spun their own interpretations. Some spoke of celestial battles, with the aurora glowing as the sign of warriors clashing in the skies or angels cast down to Earth. One Hebridean legend even tells of blood from the wounded staining stones below, giving rise to the “bloodstones”—a striking jasper still found in the islands.
Across cultures, the aurora has inspired vivid imagery. The North American Inuit call it aqsarniit, or “football players,” imagining spirits of the dead tossing a walrus head across the sky. The Vikings believed the glowing lights reflected from the armor of the Valkyrie, the supernatural maidens who carried warriors to the afterlife.
Today, the aurora watching season stretches from August through April in northern polar regions—Alaska, Canada, Scotland, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, and Siberia—with peak displays often in September and March. Just as these luminous ribbons shift from blue and green to violet and crimson, this tartan captures the brilliant variety of colors woven into the aurora’s dance.
So tonight, why not check your favorite aurora forecast—and see if the Merry Dancers will be on display? 💙 💚 💜 🔭 ✨ 💙 💚 💜
September and October are some of the best fall months to view the northern lights.
Their southern counterpart, which light up the Antarctic skies in the Southern Hemisphere, are known as the aurora australis.
The British Geological Survey, Aurorawatch UK and US body Space Weather Prediction Centre all monitor heightened opportunities of spotting the aurora due to activity on the surface of the sun.
The aurora is caused by the interaction of solar wind - a stream of charged particles escaping the sun - and Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. The colors most often associated with the aurora borealis are pink, green, yellow, blue, violet, and occasionally orange and white. Typically, when the particles collide with oxygen, yellow and green are produced. Interactions with nitrogen produce red, violet, and occasionally blue colors.
Auroras have been observed throughout history. Galileo Galilei and Pierre Gassendi witnessed a lights display in 1621, and a reference to the northern lights was made by Gregory of Tours way back in the 500s. The earliest datable account is on a Babylonian clay tablet that recorded observations made by the official astronomers of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the night of 12/13 March 567 BCE of an unusual “red glow.” But the earliest of all might be 30,000-year-old cave paintings that some believe to represent the aurora. The lights were observed and commented on by Benjamin Franklin in 1778 and Edmond Halley, of comet fame, in 1716.
This tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, was inspired by the dance of lights of the Aurora Borealis.
To keep track of aurora sightings in the UK, click the beautiful aurora.