On February 27 a major aurora occurred across Tasmania. A lot of the state was cloudy including Hobart and the south east, but luckily for Hobartians we have a big giant mountain with a webcam nearby.

Dolerite boulders silhouetted against a very bright aurora, kunanyi/Mt Wellington

During the early evening I watched in dismay as the clouds seemed destined to ruin a great show. I didn’t feel like taking a long drive but I thought that the summit of Mt Wellington could be above the clouds – alas the webcam showed that not to be the case.

Above the clouds on top of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. Amazing 🙂

As the evening wore on and it seemed all but certain that this was going to be a really great auroral display I took another look and not only did the webcam show the mountain was clear, a massive great glow was visible even on the webcam! I quickly got ready and belted up the mountain. It took me a little while to find a nice composition. I wanted some of the big dolerite boulders in the frame, and finding them in the dark and in the mist isn’t necessarily easy!

Dolerite, cloud and the aurora.

Dolerite, cloud and the aurora.

The pulsating aurora

After a little while, the aurora did something a little unusual – as well as the main green arc there was a very distinct, pulsating and flickering of light through the top of the main arc. I started taking shorter shutter speeds (2~6 seconds) to see what sort of detail I could capture. I also tried a video with my phone which actually turned out reasonably well (I’ll upload when I can).

Dolerite, cloud and the aurora. 6 second shutter as the aurora started to pulse.

The light was pulsing at this point, really quite unlike any aurora I had seen before. 3 second shutter speed.

The mist eventually came in and started obscuring things around midnight.

There have been a few great displays of the aurora lately. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that we get lucky during my upcoming autumn photography workshops. The Cradle Mountain and Freycinet trips in particular include night sky session/s (if weather permits) and there are still places available on each trip 🙂