[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

At last the weather has coughed up a treat for us south of Hobart.

Fast moving cold fronts with cloud, wind and rain threatened but in the end we enjoyed a two hour window of clear skies from 8.00pm onwards last night. In that time I spent two hours transfixed by the best aurora I have ever seen.
As I noted in an earlier post, there was a continuous bright glow of varying intensity across the southern sky from east-south-east right around to west-south-west the glow fading out at about 30% altitude. It was enough to cast faint shadows. On top of this there has been a varied display of beams, curtains, halos and bright knots of light. Some of the beams have been visible at an altitude of approx 70% with averted vision The brighter displays have been clearly reflected in the distant ocean.
Unfortunately I only have a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix P2 camera. I managed to tease out what meager settings the Nikon allowed and captured some images. They do not do justice to the visual spectacle that was on offer. I am sure others will oblige.

Then, this morning after more rain during the night we, were treated to a clear sky for the morning grand conjunction viewing. Just magnificent. Again, my camera did not give me much scope but at least I have some images looking out across the Derwent River from home.

Best 12 hours of wide field viewing in living memory?

Steve