The Aurora Australis

The Aurora is a phenomenon mostly linked with places like Norway, Sweden, Alaska and other icy nasty freezing places and is generally referred to as "The Northern Lights".  What most people don't realize is that there are also "The Southern Lights" which are visible in Antarctica (okay another icy nasty freezing place) but also from New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia.

So some factoids, since we love factoids here... Aurora is a Latin word for "dawn" and the Roman Goddess of Dawn.

Aurorae are basically caused by solar activity, interacting with our atmosphere, various charged particles and magnetism cause these very awesome displays (this is a VERY rough description if you want some hardcore science visit the Wikipedia article at the bottom)

The Vikings believed that the aurora was caused by Valkyries flying through the sky and the light was flashing from their armour.  I like that as a theory, it is cooler than the science.

So how can you see the aurora? I have linked at the bottom a resource which alerts when solar conditions are likely to generate one (at least in New Zealand), and then you simply need to find a location with a clear view to the south.  MOST aurorae are not visible to the naked eye, except very strong ones.... so how the hell do we get these pictures?

Take your DSLR camera (since naturally you all have one), preferably mounted on a tripod.
You want to set a shutter speed of around 30 seconds, set your ISO to 1600 at least for your first shot, focus on something and lock that focus, and then aim at the aurora area.  Take a shot, this one will likely be a throw away, it will let you know if you need to change your ISO or Aperture to allow more light in if the shot is too dark.  Or too light which is a little unlikely.  Keep playing until you get it right.

Below is a collection of links of interest to anyone who would like more information about aurorae, and the awesome community of people who hunt them... in New Zealand we even have a nice community group called Dark Skies also linked below.

NEXT UP! Some nature shots from a bush walk I took one sunny winter afternoon.

Useful Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora
http://www.aurora-service.net/aurora-forecast/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NZaurora/
http://www.darkskies.nz/


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license.