Aurora Australis from Tasmania

StephenM (Stephen) · #1 26-01-2015, 11:23 AM

Hi all,

I've recently returned from a trip to Tasmania (visiting family), and one of my goals was to capture the Aurora Australis. It was mostly cloudy at night, but there were clear skies on January 15th so I drove to South Arm searching for an aurora. The predictions were not very promising, but I was able to capture some weak activity and nice colour on the camera

. The last image, taken when the auroral activity was dropping off, also has a nice bright meteor!

These are either 15 of 20 sec exposures with the 6D and 24mm f/2.8 IS USM lens at f/2.8 and 6400 iso.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Stephen

StephenM (Stephen) · #2 26-01-2015, 11:28 AM

And here's another image taken while waiting for the end of astronomical twilight... this time with the Samyang 14mm lens. There's a hint of the aurora just above the clouds on the horizon.

N1 (Mirko) · #3 26-01-2015, 11:28 AM

Stephen, those are great. Photographic Auroras can be present even when the Kp is quite low.

StephenM (Stephen) · #4 26-01-2015, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N1

Stephen, those are great. Photographic Auroras can be present even when the Kp is quite low.

Thanks Mirko! Yes, from memory the Kp was less then 2 on this particular night. But I could make out the faint (but colourless) glow of the aurora on the horizon with naked eyes as well.

speach (Simon) · #5 26-01-2015, 02:41 PM

only ever seen green ones here

Regulus (Trevor) · #6 26-01-2015, 03:35 PM

A nice set of photos Stephen and I am glad you got to capture one while you were here.
In a better event you would have had green in this too, and if you get lucky (read dedicated), some white 'beams'.
Still you managed to capture what a lot miss out on so, well done.
Trevor

This photo is from a slightly better event (Kp 3 and a good neg Bz) but with a lot of moonlight, from the NW Coast of Tas

iceman (Mike) · #7 26-01-2015, 06:40 PM

Nice work great shots!

StephenM (Stephen) · #8 28-01-2015, 10:12 PM

Thanks guys! Judging from the images on the Tasmanian Aurora Facebook group, the activity did increase (with some nice greens) later on this particular night, but I'd well and truly packed up for the night at that stage... But I'm still happy to have captured what I did!

Cheers,
Stephen