Aurora Australis off the Tasman Peninsula, Feb 3, 2022

Tasman Peninsula Aurora

February 5, 2022

2022 marks my 10 year anniversary of shooting the aurora here in Tasmania, and I have to say, after all this time, the excitement has not waned one little bit. In fact, some of these shots from the Tasman Peninsula on Thursday night would have to count as “personal best” aurora shots! I found myself a stunning spot of rocky coastline and sat back to enjoy as the aurora danced.

aurora australis tasmania february 3 2022

My favourite shgot of the night – and of all time! The procession of beams was particularly strong around 11:00

I had spent the afternoon down in the Crescent Bay/Maingon Bay area and during the late afternoon I noticed the aurora numbers were looking pretty good and decided to stick around to see how things would pan out.

Screenshot of spaceweather.com for the evening of Feb 3, 2022. Bz of -18 simply cannot be ignored!

Just like a couple of recent auroras, this one was visible right on dark – a solid green aurora competing with the orange glow of the fading sunset.

Aurora Australis off the Tasman Peninsula, Feb 3, 2022

For the next hour or so, the aurora was somewhat inactive. It was a very solid band of light, but simply, really didn’t do much. So much so, that I tried a few different compositions – and even did a 20 minute star trail!

The aurora and Milky Way off the Tasman Peninsula

20 minute star trail of the Feb 3 aurora

Just as the 20 minutes ran down, the aurora started to “wobble” a little, and I guessed the show might be about to begin – and begin it did! For around 20 minutes it put on a stunning display of beams, one of the best I’ve seen. The scene in front of me too was stunning, rocky coastline – Cape Raoul in the distance and the aurora filling the sky.