They lit up the skies across Scotland but what caused the brightly coloured clouds that covered the country last night?
The colourful clouds were spotted in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Dunfermline, with many people on Twitter believing them to be the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights.
However, Lancaster University's AuroraWatch UK, who received a number of calls about the clouds, told the BBC that conditions are not right for the Aurora and said it believes that what people saw last night were nacreous clouds.
Picture: Doyourealisethough, Reddit
Beautiful, iridescent nacreous #clouds posted by #WeatherWatchers this morning! pic.twitter.com/iO6fNbbvTu
— BBC Weather Watchers (@BBCWthrWatchers) February 2, 2016
#PicOfTheWeek – #Nacreous clouds spotted over Banchory by @AndyMcDonald85 pic.twitter.com/PWF2s2fHgC
— Met Office (@metoffice) January 31, 2016
Some crazy lookin cloud over the M77 in Scotland . Winds getting up again . pic.twitter.com/FGTPbBXtMu
— David Maxwell (@DMBuckfast1) February 1, 2016
Nacreous clouds are formed in the Earth's lower stratosphere over polar regions when the sun is just below the horizon.
It's not just Scots that have witnessed the spectacular display. The beautiful cloud formations have also been spotted in Dublin, Newcastle, Norfolk and North East England.
More Nacreous Clouds. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. 2nd February 2016. pic.twitter.com/uTApV5QHAg
— David Blanchflower (@DavidBflower) February 2, 2016
Have you seen any nacreous clouds? Send us your pictures.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here