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?
It is amazing what 30 klm and some big hills will do to change the weather. I could see heavy cloud banks low to the west that were feeding the fronts that came through every couple of hours. They must have been perched directly over your head.
