The 2022 Noctilucent Cloud Season is now well and truly underway - but to be honest, so far it's been a bit of a damp squib.

The first displays were sighted at the end of May, in Eastern Europe and countries like Germany, but activity in the UK's skies has been poor so far.

There were a handful of displays best described as "pretty good" at the start of June - I managed to see pretty NLC on three consecutive nights up on holiday in Scotland - but generally it's been disappointing.

By now we've usually had at least one "WOW! LOOK AT THAT!" display in Cumbria's sky, but those have been limited to the skies above Latvia, Estonia and other more easterly lands ending in "ia".

I'm sure a big display will appear soon, but it's taking it's time this year, that's for sure.

We might have to wait until July, when, statistically, the best displays are seen.

Whenever it does eventually come, the "Best Display of 2022" will start modestly, looking like little more than a few ragged wisps of gold and blue peeping up from behind the horizon one midnight.

Then it will blossom and bloom into something, amazing.

The whole of the northern sky, from west to east, will be painted with streamers, curls and whirls of electric blue cloud, strikingly bright and "strange" to the naked eye, perhaps even bright enough to cast shadows.

So for the next month and a half (the Season ends at the start of August) keep your batteries charged, your lenses clean and an eye on the sky, because it can't be long now until we see something beautiful.