Saturday, May 11, 2024

Southern lights in Victoria

It's usually not easy to catch a glimpse of Aurora Australis, the southern lights, from Victoria. Tasmania and New Zealand are better places to be. The occasions when it is visible from in Victoria, it's best seen from the southern coasts of the state and usually appears as a faint glow to the naked eye. My last post on astrophotography had a picture of the southern lights taken from Flinders. But with the intense geomagnetic storm yesterday auroras were expected to be visible from many parts of the world. 

As soon as I got to know this I looked for the closest southernmost point, and being in the west of Melbourne, this was Kirk Point in Point Wilson. While driving there I was amazed to see the green and pink shifting columns of light to the naked eye while still on the highway, and stopped to snap a few pictures as soon as I took the exit. Afterwards we went to my intended location and was treated to the spectacular southern lights show. It waned off around 11pm but was still visible even from my backyard after reaching home around midnight. 

Some pictures are below:









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