Northern Lights, Embleton Quarry Live Cam

This north-facing camera watches the sky over the ruined Quarry House at Embleton Quarry, a nature reserve in Northumberland. A tall conifer rises on the left, and the roofless stone house with two chimneys stands on the right.

Embleton is a village near the Northumberland coast, north of Alnwick. Whinstone was quarried here from 1864 until 1961, and the old workings are now a community nature reserve. Quarry House, once home to the quarry manager, was lived in until the late 1970s and now shelters tree sparrows and bats.

The camera faces north, toward the part of the sky where the northern lights appear over Britain, and the reserve is a recognised dark sky site. At about 55 degrees north the sky stays in twilight through June and July nights, which makes summer the season for noctilucent clouds rather than auroras.