A powerful solar storm lit up the skies of the southern parts of South Africa this past weekend, giving citizens and visitors a rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most spectacular natural phenomena.

The geomagnetic storm, brought about by charged particles from the sun interacting with earth’s magnetic field, impacted the planet throughout the night on Friday, May 10, continuing into the following day.

Storms such as these are the origin of rare phenomena such as the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) and aurora australis, which can generally only be seen in the far northern and southern latitudes of earth.

However, with this particular storm being the strongest to impact earth in over 20 years, reports of aurora australis streamed in from regions stretching from the Western and Eastern Cape up to Namibia. See below for some of the best photos snapped during the event.