ONE of the seven natural wonders of the world normally only seen in parts of the Arctic Circle could be seen as far south as Essex last Thursday night.

The aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, is caused by electrically charged particles from the Sun entering the Earth's atmosphere and can usually only be seen much further north.

But one Eastleigh man managed to capture the rare moment on his camera from as far south as Owslebury after the amateur photographer heard about the magnetic storm.

“I was actually at home decorating with my girlfriend,” he said. “I follow a lot of twitter feeds to do with astronomy and I was keeping up to date with the storm. I said to my girlfriend that we should nip out for a bit and we went out at about 9.30pm to find the best spot to take it.”

Mr Lee, a 28-year-old retail manager, was on the A272 between Rodfield Lane and South Downs Lane near The Milburys pub when he took the pictures.