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Aurora Australis? 5 April 2010
I was on a bushwalk in Walls of Jerusalem National Park, Tasmania, camping at the north end of Lake Adelaide last Monday night 5 April. Went to bed at dark but got up again briefly at about 8.15 pm. The sky was dark and clear with lots of stars, except for a startlingly bright glow radiating from the southern horizon over the other end of the lake. It was whitish and turned the sky at its perimeter a light blue colour. There were faint rays of light (straight lines) pointing upwards at the upper edge.
I could think of nothing else it could be but an aurora, although it was not what I thought an aurora should look like. I have actually seen one before, a typical red glow over Lake George near Canberra many years ago. This light was neither green nor red but white or bluish white and it wasn't dancing around. It was not glow left over from twilight because I'd already watched the twilight fade to dark earlier in the night in the west - this was directly south, and the sky elsewhere was pretty black. There are no towns anywhere for miles and the quality of the light was quite unlike skyglow from a town - whiter, brighter and a different shape. Unfortunately I only stayed out for a couple of minutes gazing at it because I had been bitten by a leech earlier in the night (I swell up badly from leech bites) and didn't want them coming back for more. I regret it now but at the time self preservation seemed a higher priority. So I don't know how it evolved after that.
I just found on the net that people in NZ reported seeing an aurora that night, so that makes it more likely that that is what it was. Anyway it was very beautiful sight, especially in such a beautiful location.
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