Gaps in a grey month

The last couple of weeks have been hard for enthusiastic night-time photographers in the north (for instance like me...), with an ever present thick grey cover of clouds dominating the sky.

Recently, however, a small gap in the otherwise grey month offered a fantastic view of the northern lights - here shining directly in through my window.

Other times, the cloud cover has offered the view of some optical phenomena, like in this case, a classic 22 degree lunar halo, where the Moon and brilliant Capella at mag -0.48 (just above the Moon) manage to shine through the clouds.

22 degree lunar halo