Hello & a query

[acj]

Good Evening,

My name's Aaron & I came across this forum while searching for images of images of the Aurora Australis taken in Melbourne.

This forum is a wealth of information & the images I've seen are stunning. Kudos to the community!:thumbsup:

I've always been fascinated by Aurora & never realised they could be seen from Melbourne.

I've been doing a bit of reading on viewing conditions etc but thought maybe I'd ask the question here.

Supposing tonight aligned with a new moon, was cloudless & I was as as far south as I could go in Vic & away from artificial lights, would the attached Kp reading be conducive to viewing/photographing an Aurora?

Many Thanks,
Aaron

[colinmlegg]

Hi Aaron,

I'm no expert ... but the 2 things I look for are the Kp and Bz numbers. Generally Kp should be 4 or above and Bz pointing south (-ve). The more -ve Bz, the better. In terms of those circles, Activity 9 roughly relates to Kp 4 and 10 to Kp 5 or above.

The other thing to watch for are potential solar wind stream impacts with Earth. These can be due to Coronal holes, or CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections). A number of spacecraft are out there monitoring these things and the data is fed into models that give real time predictions of likely impacts. Like Earth weather models, there is a degree of uncertainly, so they should be taken as indications rather than gospel.

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/

Another site worth following is the Facebook Tasmania Aurora Group. They get pretty active when events happen and are a great resource for links and such.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/215002295201328/?fref=ts

Aurora chasing can be quite frustrating, but the reward is great. Remember, you are dealing with 2 weather systems (Earth and Sun), the Lunar phases and location (latitude, longitude). They all have to line up to see the prize. I had many failures before I caught a good one, others have seen it first try. You may be one of the lucky ones ... there is a forecast for a possible glancing CME impact tonight!

Good luck.

Colin

[carl37]

+1 for the Aurora Australis Tasmania Facebook Group (if you're on Facebook of course). If an aurora is able to be seen from Victoria, then this group will be going bananas.

I also check out www.spaceweather.com on a daily basis. If there is any expected activity then it will be mentioned on here. It is also a great site for linking to all the useful charts and information.

A good place to view not too far from the city is Flinders. All you need is a clear view to the south, and even better with the flat horizon over the water.

I'm also in Melbourne, and have yet to see one (after about a year and a half). Good luck, and I may see you out there!!

[acj]

Hi Colin & Carl,

Many thanks for the replies & time to explain it out. Greatly appreciated. It's starting to make more sense now. So many factors play a role in viewing eh? Makes it all the more rewarding, I'm certain!

Are either of you heading out to view tonight?

Kind Regards,
Aaron

[acj]

Also... I joined the FB page & just got approved :D There's a bit of buzz on there about this evening.

Cheers.

[carl37]

I'm can't get out this evening Aaron.

I'm not expecting it to be spectacular tonight, but aurorae are a very fickle phenomenon, so who knows!! ;)