Well I got my wish! On my most recent blog post just a couple of days ago I commented it would be nice to get another aurora sometime soon and last night the numbers looked good, and the sky relatively clear so I packed and took off for Eaglehawk Neck for another crack at catching the lights over the Tessellated Pavement.

The aurora over the Tasman Peninsula from Eaglehawk Neck on Sept 1

The clouds were low on the southern horizon – right where you don’t want them to be but the aurora was strong enough (for a brief period of time) to shine through 🙂

The Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds were just as stunning as the aurora itself, and lent itself well to a couple of portraits.

As the evening wore on the clouds got thicker and the aurora weaker. This is a composite 2 minute exposure with the Pentax Astrotracer.

I have tried here only once before – complete with an ABC TV crew – and that night some fairly strong moonlight dominated the aurora. Last night there was no moon at all, but the clouds were just where you don’t want them – low on the southern horizon. Indeed, the Milky Way, Southern Cross and Magellanic Clouds all sparkled beautifully above the dark band of clouds.

Southern lights, car headlights, and clouds. from Luke O’Brien on Vimeo.

In the end I was happy to be seeing the lights again – it has been a very long time, and fingers crossed there will be some more lights this month, in particular between September 27 ~ 30 when I run another night sky photography workshop up at Cradle Mountain!