Aurora ALERT

[CapturingTheNight]

Putting it out there for anyone in the southern parts of Australia that if you are lucky enough to have some clear skies tonight and the current aurora conditions hold steady, there is a very good chance of witnessing/photographing an aurora display.

The present numbers are the strongest I have seen this year. Finding clear skies will be the biggest issue going on all the cloud forecast charts. Northern Tas looks to be the prime location. I just got back from Tasmania three days ago. Wish I was still there.

There could be some good news for those clouded out tonight (more than likely me). If you have clear skies Sunday night there is a good chance that this event will still be taking place then as I believe this is from high energy particles streaming from a coronal hole and the predictions had the impact from this event lasting well over two days http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/. So if we have these conditions now, my prediction is that they are going to last a while (but like all predictions they are just that predictions)

With the present conditions and based on past observations of aurora anyone south of, say a line between Sydney and Perth (and possibly much higher), assuming little to no light pollution to the south, could be able to photograph it. You might not get the wonderful greens (need to ideally be as far south as possible for that) but you could possibly get the higher altitude pinks and purples.

Fingers crossed and good luck to anyone aurora chasing.

[apaulo]

Hi Greg,

Looks like it's going to be an excellent night but we have wall to wall cloud here in Balnarring. My views to the south are horrible, still I wll put the camera and tripod on the back veranda and see if I can catch a break in the clouds.
Good luck
Regards Paul.

[CapturingTheNight]

IT'S ON. Pics coming in from Tasmania now.

Good luck with the clouds Paul.

[acropolite]

Spent 30 minutes imaging at the end of my street in Launceston, Aurora is clearly visible, no colour to the naked eye but amazing colour with the camera. Not sure but it looks like it was getting stronger, but the cloud was also building, I'll keep checking.
Anyone in Tassie with a DSLR and a tripod shoud be able to get something even amongst the city glow.

I'll post some pics when I get the chance.

[acropolite]

OK here's a few, first is the teaser, hand held on the deck to see what activity was there, the rest from along the street. The last includes a few houses etc to give an ide of the brightness. The last shot shows as I thought that the Aurora was getting stronger, unfortunately so is the cloud cover, I'll be back out with the 8mm fish if it clears...:D

[CapturingTheNight]

Way to go Phil. Good to hear that you are getting the show. Great images. Keep em coming for those of us staring forlornly at the clouds.

[h0ughy]

awesome Phil!!:thumbsup:

[Stefan12]

Lovely images! It's nice to see the street lights are switched off :)

[apaulo]

Hey Aurora Chasers

The skies of Balnarring last night were rather disappointing but a mate was only 15kms away towards Flinders and it was clear.

Managed to get about an hours worth of images but I am at work now so I will process them tonight.

Excellent images Phil can't wait to see everyone elses results

Regards Paul.

[glenc]

Nice images Phil
I just read this "2013 is a bumper year for nature’s light show, with a peak in sunspot activity that has sent colours spinning across the skies as far north as Tasmania, more frequently than seen for years."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/17441475/tassie-aurora-sets-off-shutter-frenzy/
see also https://www.facebook.com/groups/215002295201328/
and http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapS.html

[skysurfer]

Strange. On a relative low latitude as 38ºS one can see auroras and not in a subarctic region like northern Europe like the Netherlands (52ºN) ?

[OzEclipse]

That's because it's always cloudy in the Netherlands.:lol:

Seriously-

The auroral band of visibility isn't symmetrical nor centred on the poles. On Saturday the predicted auroral band of visibility extended down to cover all of Canada, northern states of the USA but only the extreme north of Europe where they currently get no darkness.

The aurora visibility was predicted up to about 50 S. This was about 1000km south of southern Australia. But at the very high altitudes, 100km they were visible on the horizon from some way further north.

The air in the southern hemisphere is vastly clearer and less polluted than Europe, Asia and North America so there is not as much extinction near the horizon down south.

Look at the other thread http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=107706

Paul Haese even reports regularly seeing the aurora when it is much further south and weaker than last Saturday.

Joe

[Paul Haese]

Yeah missed this one again. Another big storm missed. Clouded out here but I just know it would have put on a big display. When it hit KP6 I was looking at the Satellite and wondering why the cloud was here. That said only last month I captured a KP4 display at Kings beach, which is around 36 degrees south. Got a KP5 at Penola on 1 March this year which is 37S. So it can be done. It you can get a dark sky and clear horizon you are in business. Tonight there is still a forecast of KP5 in the offing and skies are starting to clear after a weekend of rain (55mm for us). The stream is still quite fast and that could spark aurora.

[Octane]

I photographed it from Auckland. :O

H

[Suzy_A]

Hi people,

I just managed to see the Aurora on the evening of 02 June 2013 while camped at Eaglestone Rock about 200 km North-East from Perth - -31.083674,118.242652

Unfortunately I didn't have the right camera gear with me (I was on a rock-climbing trip!) and it clouded over, but did see a bit. It was very low on the horizon and I could see it move about, sometimes very quickly, and change brightness.

Susan

[Becstar]

Those are really, really beautiful!