Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,416
New year aurora
2025 kicked off to a great start with a spectacular aurora on the night of Jan 1, 2025. Two CME's left the Sun a couple of days earlier and were Earth directed. The first was predicted to arrive New Year's Eve Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (AEDT). The leading edge arrived as the sun was rising. Activity continued all day. The first CME charged up the atmosphere. When the second CME hit late afternoon on Jan 1, there was plenty in the tank and the display persisted all night. This video starts just before the end of astronomical twilight, 10pm AEDT [1100UT] and continues all night, 400 minutes at 1 frame per minute, until 20 mins after the commencement of astronomical twilight at 0452 AEDT [1752UT]. There were two peaks of the storm. One was between midnight and 0130 AEDT, the other from 0346 AEDT into twilight.
Thanks Joe, glad you enjoyed the show, must have been a long night. As usual I missed out again, a combination of east coast southerly change and not being allowed to drive inland because of a current medical condition. Always next time !
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,416
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saturnine
Thanks Joe, glad you enjoyed the show, must have been a long night. As usual I missed out again, a combination of east coast southerly change and not being allowed to drive inland because of a current medical condition. Always next time !
Hi Jeff,
Sorry to hear about your condition and the clouds.
I heard Wollongong was clouded from members complaining on the NSW aurora groups.
Nobody expected last night to be as good as it was. There are two more CME's incoming in about 3 & 6 days from now. The best naked eye visual was the hour before twilight and next was the hour around midnight. Most of the night, there wasn't much naked eye action.
Lovely images Joe!
That was a long night but well worth it from the images.
I'm glad we had crappy weather, my Nikon is still in the repair shop and they're shut till the 6th January, six weeks so far awaiting a common part.
I was sent a couple of images in a text message by my younger sister in Queensland (not taken by her). My cousins wife (also in Queensland) is a flight hostess instructor with Jet Star and took some images at 34,000 feet somewhere between Brisbane and Perth, one has the tail of the plane in the image., I don't know exactly where they were taken.
We've had rain and winter temperatures ourselves locally, it's lovely (temperature wise not rain). Many nights have been dropping down between 5 and 7c, during summer.
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,416
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
Wonderful stuff Joe. During a solar H-alpha imaging run I noticed
a significant flare and wondered whether it would trigger a display.....
You've provided the answer
Thanks Peter. The freedom of retirement + my location + excellent real time space-weather information resources is proving to be great for Aurora time lapsing. Being able to wander inside and flop on the sofa for a nap allows much longer sessions.
Yes David (Astral Traveller) I know there's that power pole you want me to chop down. But the pole supplies power to my and my neightbours houses... so no thanks.
This is my sixth event in the past 9 months. In the previous 35 years, when I was living and working full time in Canberra, finding the energy to travel out of town was very difficult which I'm sure many members here understand only too well. It's a much bigger trip out of Sydney. In those 35 years, I only ever saw one from inside Canberra in 1992.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo.G
Lovely images Joe!
That was a long night but well worth it from the images.
I'm glad we had crappy weather, my Nikon is still in the repair shop and they're shut till the 6th January, six weeks so far awaiting a common part.
I was sent a couple of images in a text message by my younger sister in Queensland (not taken by her). My cousins wife (also in Queensland) is a flight hostess instructor with Jet Star and took some images at 34,000 feet somewhere between Brisbane and Perth, one has the tail of the plane in the image., I don't know exactly where they were taken.
We've had rain and winter temperatures ourselves locally, it's lovely (temperature wise not rain). Many nights have been dropping down between 5 and 7c, during summer.
Hi Leo,
Sorry to hear your camera is still being repaired. It was warm here that night. Pretty sure I was just in a tee shirt all night. We had a cold night last night.
My cousins wife (also in Queensland) is a flight hostess instructor with Jet Star and took some images at 34,000 feet somewhere between Brisbane and Perth, one has the tail of the plane in the image., I don't know exactly where they were taken.
This strikes me as very strange.
1. If flying either leg of BNE-PER the tail would be east or west.
2. Unless she was standing on the wing, how would she get the tail in the image from the cabin??
Hope you get your camera back soon. Once when doing AP, I didn't engage a dovetail securely. A whole side by side assembly slid out of the Losmandy D sized dovetail and landed on the ground all the force on my K1 camera body tearing out the bayonet mount. It had to be sent to Pentax in Japan and have the whole shutter and mirror box and lens mount replaced. 6 months before it came back but it has performed flawlessly this past 7 years since.
Good Show Joe,
I had a heads-up about the poles lighting up but being in Qld is a bit far north unless it be a humongous event,, it was clouded here anyway,,,
Your video was great to watch as well,,,,
Another set of great images. Thanks for posting them.
I assume all the little streaks across the sky are aircraft? It drives home just how much air traffic there is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OzEclipse
Yes David (Astral Traveller) I know there's that power pole you want me to chop down. But the pole supplies power to my and my neightbours houses... so no thanks.
I wasn't going to say a word. The pole is actually much less noticeable this time compared to previous sequences.
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,416
Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralTraveller
Another set of great images. Thanks for posting them.
I assume all the little streaks across the sky are aircraft? It drives home just how much air traffic there is.
I wasn't going to say a word. The pole is actually much less noticeable this time compared to previous sequences.
Hi David,
I think they are probably satellites. There are no big international airports anywhere near here for all those streaks to be aircraft. Those streaks are going east-west, the nearest big city international airports are up north in Asia. From Central West NSW, the nearest international airports east of me are Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires.
Pole is less noticeable because I'm using a much wider angle lens this time, a 14mm vs 34mm when you mentioned it last Oct. Lens selection is a bit of a roll of the dice. Unless the display is at maximum when you start, you don't know how high in altitude the display will be. Go too wide and it's just a little thin glow at the bottom of the frame. Go too narrow and a big display can spill out of frame. If capturing a time lapse sequence, I don't like to have a discontinuity from a lens change mid-sequence.
Hi Mike,
I hope you do catch one but based upon my experience I would guess that you probably won’t unless you’re very lucky.
This solar maximum has been going for about 8 months and maybe has 6-12 months to go.
There’s been about 7 bright events since the max got going. Just under one per month. I’ve caught six of them. How many nights per month are you actually at Eagleview?
It’s a statistical thing. I’m living at my observation spot and I can respond quickly. I also get a lot more clear weather out here than around Canberra or on the coast. I had to travel west for the big event last May, all the others have been clear here. I don’t have any special “Aurora whisperer” powers, just clear dark sky access. I do have a network of friends and we all give each other phone calls or texts when it’s on in addition to using geomagnetic data apps and Aurora groups.
When I was in Canberra during previous solar maxima, I had very little success.
I wish you luck but my past experiences were that it’s very difficult when you live in the city.
, so sigh... missed yet another show from Eagleview 
