Aurora Australis

Liz · #1 18-02-2012, 07:18 PM

Wondering .... not that I can afford it ..... but where are some good places to view the Aurora from Australia. I know it can be pot luck, depending on the Sun.

What about the islands off Vic or SA eg Kangaroo Island, even southern Tassie??

Would love to see them one day, but a long way to go to Scandinavia.

Just wondering ....... perhaps we could have as an Astro Aurora Event

I know Alex C captured some great images from Flinders.

lepton3 (Ivan) · #2 18-02-2012, 10:37 PM

Liz,

I have seen the Aurora Australis *once* in my lifetime, in 1989, from country South Australia.

It was a very dark site, and a few days after a massive solar flare / CME. Very faint, not colourful (the concensus in the group was its was white/grey), and it didn't reach very far above the horizon.

SO it is possible to see from mainland Australia, but I think rare, and as you say, pot luck depending on the sun. I expect it is far more common in southern Tasmania.

-Ivan

Liz · #3 19-02-2012, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lepton3

Liz,

I have seen the Aurora Australis *once* in my lifetime, in 1989, from country South Australia.

It was a very dark site, and a few days after a massive solar flare / CME. Very faint, not colourful (the concensus in the group was its was white/grey), and it didn't reach very far above the horizon.

SO it is possible to see from mainland Australia, but I think rare, and as you say, pot luck depending on the sun. I expect it is far more common in southern Tasmania.

-Ivan

Thanks for that Ivan.

Ok, after a bit more research .... next year is the year, and around the equinox, so southern Tassie here I come....... hopefully.

fringe_dweller · #4 19-02-2012, 11:32 AM

good luck with that Liz! yes autumn and spring are best times, due to complicated reasons but they still occur outside of those times as we recently seen .. i followed the last cycle (23)/solar max intently and went aurora chasing quite a bit .. so many ducks have to line up, number one for mainland viewing being huge x class flares having occured, but there are exceptions, but the big rarer x flares usually can produce aurora that go (on and off) for 48 hours, so you get a big window .. the other thing is the downside of graph from solar max is the best, so for a couple of years after max year, plenty of sun activity .. but as you can see from graph solar maxs are getting progressively quieter .. but having said that last solar max cycle 23 produced some of the biggest flares recorded! like the x-17 of oct 2003,

its true that southern tassie and south island NZ are best spots in our part of the world, if they get clear weather, even small shows are impressive .. but i followed the last cycle max as i said, and maybe more than 50% of the time, and this goes for southern Victoria as well, when a really big rarer show was on, those prime spots were clouded out .. and we werent .. also southern western australia is pretty good too, they might have on average even clearer weather than us in the wheatbelt .. even southern nsw did much better than vic with regards to actually getting to see the more famous shows..

they really need to start a southern aurora boat viewing service, closer to antartica? .. like they do for whales and the like, so they can sail out from under clouds?

another thing the best peaks of the best nights, i witnessed, 3/4's of them were close to dawn! soooo thats not going to suit everyone

heres an old thread with some details of displays i got to see last time, the biggest best one i saw was april 12 2001, i was only person in southern hemisphere that saw and reported it! but it was some kind of freak sub-storm no one expected to be that good, its at bottom of this page..

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=3294

Liz · #5 20-02-2012, 10:17 AM

Many thanks for all that info Kearn.

Will definitely try for next year, maybe November, and will follow up on more info to help in this quest.

Barrykgerdes · #6 20-02-2012, 10:54 AM

There was a magnificent display of Aurora Australia in the early 1950's over Sydney. Most did not know what it was at first because a display like it had not been seen before.

It just about covered the sky from the meridian to the southern horizon with its rolling pink display.

I have not seen an Aurora since even when I lived in Scotland.

Barry

BPO · #7 20-02-2012, 02:22 PM

There's always New Zealand. Down here in the south, we see the aurora a few times per year.

icytailmark (Mark) · #8 20-02-2012, 02:26 PM

my dad saw the aurora from sydney back in the 50's. It must of been a hell of a solar storm to come up so far.

CometGuy · #9 20-02-2012, 08:45 PM

Hi Liz,

If you really wanted to see Aurora Australis you'd have to move for a period on time to the Southland/Otago region of NZ! They are just not frequent enough to just travel there and expect to see something. At one time I made frequent business trips to Invercargill (problably spent at least a month there over time) and saw one Aurora - although it was a spectacular one! When I lived in Melbourne I saw about a dozen over a period of 3 years, although none as impressive as the one from NZ. A couple did get bright enough though to show clear colour to the naked eye however.

I do know one of the large Auroral displays was seen from Townsville, but I can't remember when (I thought it might have been 1972 but I'm not sure).

I also remember Bruce Tregaskis from the AVS (who sadly passed away a few years ago) re-accounting seeing a massive auroral display in the 1950's that covered the entire sky as seen from country Victoria.

Stardrifter_WA · #10 20-02-2012, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icytailmark

my dad saw the aurora from sydney back in the 50's. It must of been a hell of a solar storm to come up so far.

I have some really nice photos of aurora taken from Perth Observatory in the late 80's. There were a number of aurora seen at high latitudes.

A friend in Tasmania used to call me to say that he had aurora well above him, so we would head out, as we are 2 hours behind him. An early warning system, of sorts. Most nights that he rang me, we did indeed see aurora in Perth. It was fantastic! But, they were relatively stationary and not moving like we see closer to the poles.

Paul Haese · #11 20-02-2012, 11:11 PM

The displays of the early 1950's were extensive because the cycle of 1954 was the largest one in recorded history. My mother as a teenager recorded Aurora from her mothers home in Currency Creek for a scientist at Adelaide Uni.

In more recent times several ASSA members recorded aurora from the southern suburbs of Adelaide during the last cycle.

The current cycle is very low and I think maybe maximum has been and gone. Reason being that activity has died down from sunspot numbers of 140-180 5 months ago to now being around 40-70 for the last month. Might be wrong but just a hunch at present.

That said, with the solar activity so low, chances of catching aurora while not impossible will be rare from Australia if flaring is non existent. Best of luck with your hunting Liz.

Ausrock (Chris) · #12 20-02-2012, 11:26 PM

So glad to see the 50's Southern Aurora being mentioned as it's something I've always remembered even though I was only a youngster.

Liz · #13 22-02-2012, 10:42 AM

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I will keep on hoping that next year will be good, and that the maximun in this cycle hasnt gone

.

NZ would be great too, but Tassie probabaly easier to get to. I'II still plan to get down there as have never set foot on that wee isle.

Am a born and bred victorian, but never saw one when I lived there, though never looked. Probably lighting up the sky while I slept.

fringe_dweller · #14 07-03-2012, 03:26 PM

'tonights (or tomorrow night) the night'? maybe - as sung by rod stewart, X5 flare

Phil Hart · #15 07-03-2012, 05:35 PM

southern tassie definitely best chance in australia. as far as weather prospects go, i think march equinox would be a little better than september.

when i get back from the Yukon, i've thought about taking a week long holiday in tassie every second march (perhaps) as the best shot at aurora from home.

Phil

KenGee (Kenith Gee) · #16 07-03-2012, 10:47 PM

If you save your pennies http://www.auroraexpeditions.com.au/

fringe_dweller · #17 07-03-2012, 11:05 PM

during last solar max Paul Anderson used to get mindblowing shots/shows from Ulverston, Tasmania, usually out the front of his house lol .. I think I remember him saying that far northern tassie was pretty good, because it suffered less often from cloud cover than the south of tassie did, but was still ideally situated . and if the name of the game is seeing southern lights from Aussie soil, framed with southern night sky .. well .. doesnt get much better?

some of his pics

http://skychasers.net/paulanderson.htm

http://stott.customer.netspace.net.au/aurora.htm

Liz · #18 08-03-2012, 10:36 AM

Yes, saw that a nice Solar Flare on the way, work work, work, bugger.

Lovely photos, thank you

Still plan for Tassie mext year, maybe March as have a party in Victoria to attend in mid feb.

shelltree (Shelley) · #19 09-03-2012, 10:35 PM

Will be in Tassy on Monday, so will miss any chance of Aurora from the recent activity

Let's hope for some more though while we're there!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #20 09-03-2012, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liz

Yes, saw that a nice Solar Flare on the way, work work, work, bugger.

Lovely photos, thank you

Still plan for Tassie mext year, maybe March as have a party in Victoria to attend in mid feb.

and Snake Valley Astro Camps align with the good months for Aurora: March and November

Feel free to come to camp on your way through to tassie