Stunning footage of aurora borealis taken on trans-Atlantic flight

The SkyMall catalog can wait.

While flying on a trans-Atlantic flight from London to New York, passenger Paul Williams captured a stunning time-lapse video of the aurora borealis.  Watch it, but be careful — your jaw is likely to drop all the way to the ground.

The aurora borealis, often called the northern lights, occurs when gaseous particles in the atmosphere collide with charged particles from the sun. When the particles hit Earth's atmosphere the result is a beautiful glowing show of purples, greens, blues and reds. A similar phenomenon occurs near the South Pole.

Many people travel to places such as Alaska and northern Canada in the hopes of seeing the lights for themselves. Williams got lucky — he got to experience them while flying to the Big Apple. Better than an in-flight movie, for sure.

Follow Mike Krumboltz on Twitter at @mikekrumboltz.