An aurora as seen from Island Bay, 4 August 2024.
Photo: Chris Harrington-Lines / supplied
A budding photographer and stargazer gave up on sleep in favour of a stunning Aurora Australis.
While most of us were tucked up, the Southern Lights put on a show across the south coast of Wellington.
Chris Harrington-Lines parked up in Island Bay and was surprised at just how good it was.
“I got an alert from the Glendale app, which is a really good app for anyone who’s keen on aurora-hunting. I got there at about 9pm and it said there was an orange alert, which is always a good sign.
“So it was at 9pm and I got to Island Bay probably around 10pm, and then at about 10.45pm it really kicked off.”
An aurora as seen from Island Bay, 4 August 2024.
Photo: Chris Harrington-Lines / supplied
He set up his camera looking south, and knew he was going to get something right away.
“I wasn’t expecting anything amazing. It’s like, the fourth time or fifth time I’ve captured auroras on camera, but [these are] definitely my favourite photos.”
Harrington-Lines, relatively new to space photography, said he missed out on the May aurora because of cloud cover.
There were reports this one could be seen as far north as Hamilton.
“It was really clear. There was probably at about 12 o’clock a little bit of low cloud on the horizon kind of going across, but that looked really cool in the photos… this was definitely the biggest I’ve seen.”
Usually, particles from solar flares bounce off the Earth’s magnetic field, but when there is a severe eruption, they can penetrate the ionosphere and interact with gases around the magnetic poles – causing the ribbons of colour.
An aurora as seen from Island Bay, 4 August 2024.
Photo: Chris Harrington-Lines / supplied
Spaceweather.com said Sunday’s geomagnetic storm was level G3 (out of a maximum G5).
He was not keen to out again Monday night to get some more snaps after being out until 3am, staring up into space.
“I don’t know if I’m up for another late night.”
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