Aurora Australis from NZ / EDIT: added timelapse

[pluto]

I've just returned from a couple of weeks driving around the south island of NZ and the highlight has to have been a surprise viewing of the aurora from Lake Tekapo.

I say surprise because it was cloudy most of the trip, plus the days are so long, plus the moon was only 2 days past full, and as a result of all this I really hadn't planned on traveling anywhere specifically to catch the aurora.

Anyway we were at Lake Tekapo and all day my "Aurora Buddy" app had been telling me the kp-index was around 6 so, with a mostly clear sky, I rushed out when the sky was almost dark (at about 10pm!) and started shooting.

It lasted a bit over an hour starting off with pinkish streaks that were just visible, then changing to quite bright pink/purple streaks and blobs and then, towards the end, changed to faint green swirly/streaky things. :D


I have some timelapse stuff which I'll post when I have some time but here are some stills.

More, bigger and better quality ones on my blog here: http://hughsblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/aurora-australis/

EDIT: short timelapse here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA5LxjDG3Yg (make sure you choose HD)

[h0ughy]

:eyepop::2thumbs::jawdrop::prey2: :party2: :bowdown::bowdown::clap:

OMG what spectacular shots!!!!!! Congratulations, you know some people fly around the world chasing these things and you managed to bag that "next door" so to speak;):D

[niko]

awesome, well done ya lucky bugger!

[gregbradley]

Those shots are fantastic. Lucky you!
Greg.

[SkyViking]

Incredible photos, I knew the aurora was pretty good down south but this is just spectacular! The clouds add a great 3D effect. I remember seeing aurora in Denmark once and the sight was quite similar to this (except it was just green), and there were also the hovering clouds in front which gave it some scale. Thanks for the view!

[pluto]

Thanks Houghy.
I'm one of those people having flown to Norway last year to see the aurora!


Cheers Niko :D


Thanks Greg


Thanks Rolf :)

[RB]

Stunning colour in those Hugh.
Fantastic captures, well done and congrats on bagging them.
The youtube clip is great too.

Well done mate.

:thumbsup:

[CapturingTheNight]

Awesome images Hugh! Congratulations on the captures. Love the second last one with the iconic church and the last one showing some separation of the green aurora. Only seen that once myself.

Edit: Just watched the video :bowdown:

[Saturn%5]

:eyepop: Wow Hugh Just stunning.

[h0ughy]

oh and the icing on the cake - the video. brilliant

[matt34]

Great shots, one of my favorite parts of the world.

I love the detail on the church window is that the moon light? or artificial lighting. Looks a pretty bright aurora what exposure times where your shots?

[Antu]

Absolutely amazing colors ! Wow ..

[gregbradley]

You really won the aurora lottery there. Amazing.

Greg.

[ourkind]

You lucky lucky lucky man! Well done Hugh, beautiful shots and a great video!

[dutch2]

Amazing, awesome, well done.:thumbsup:

[pluto]

Thanks Andrew!


Thanks, I was surprised how much the aurora changed over just an hour. When I saw it in Norway last year it pretty much stayed the same over each apparition.
I think there was much more of the green stuff happening but as it happens at a lower altitude and I didn't have a good view of the southern horizon I missed most of it.

Cheers :D

I wish there was more!

Cheers, I'm not sure where that light is coming from, the moon hadn't risen when I took those but there were people walking around there with torches and phones etc so it could be something like that.
Those are all 10 sec exp ISO1600 f2.8, some of the other church ones on my blog are 15 sec.

Thankyou :)



Thanks guys, yeah very lucky!
But there were people there who were walking around with torches and phones and not looking up who were just as lucky but totally missed it. Pretty sad...
There was even one guy who I was chatting to as we were both photographing the church who had thought it was some kind of pink light shining on the church until I explained it was the aurora...

OT but it reminds me of the german backpackers I met in Port Douglas during the TSE who had no idea it was happening until they saw all these people with glasses, cameras and scopes setting up! I gave them a spare pair of glasses so they got a good view, lucky buggers...

[matt34]

Ah yes the others around the church at night. Had a lot of "fun" with them and people not having any light (or noise) discipline and not having any idea of ppl around them or courtesy to ask before jumping in the middle of someones shot it seems to get worse each time I go there.

But at least they helped with your shot :)

[N1]

I think you will find that the light comes from the stars - no kidding. The Milky Way produces sufficient light for me to (just) be able to read a car's number plate at my NZ dark sky sites (the NZ plates are black on white). And you were, after all, in a dark sky reserve (http://www.mtcooknz.com/mackenzie/stargazing/).

Beautiful shots :thumbsup: and a well deserved spectacle for someone who probably doesn't get the chance often. Did you know that particular display was seen from Kiama - saw some pics posted on Spaceweather?

Edit: here's the link:

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=94523

[pluto]

Yeah pretty annoying, I had probably 8 out of 10 shots around the church ruined by people with torches and phones, then some girl with an iPad sat right in front of it...



That's great, I had no idea it would be visible from Kiama!

[Retrograde]

Wow - very nice!

I also travelled to Norway last year as part of a European holiday (although not specifically to see aurora) & didn't see anything either.

[pluto]

Thanks Pete!

I was both unlucky and lucky with my Norway trip.
Unlucky as we were staying at a beautiful location that would have provided great foreground to any aurora photos but it stayed cloudy the whole time we were there.
Lucky that we eventually had a few great nights of viewing the aurora but we were on a Hurtigruten ferry and long exposure photography is a bit tricky from a moving boat ;)


I just noticed the APOD today is a nice pano of the same aurora event from Lake Tekapo, taken up near the Mt John observatories:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140226.html

[mbaddah]

Beautiful set of images there :thumbsup: I spent several nights last year at Lake Tekapo during new moon in the hope that I would capture something similar. Despite a high kp index nothing eventuated, so you're very lucky :D

Well done.