may 10 aurora.
The Aurora.
The Aurora Borealis/Australis is perhaps one of the most magical natural phenomena a person can witness, in the same category as bioluminescence or seeing the Milky Way with your own eyes. While the Aurora (often referred to as the northern or southern lights) is regularly seen in the polar regions, the rest of us are not quite so lucky. This is due to how the Earth's magnetic field channels charged particles into its polar regions - like a giant magnet. While the sun is often ejecting these particles in our direction through CMEs (coronal mass ejection), igniting aurora displays overhead for those near the poles, it takes a truly historic event for aurora to be seen from the tropics.
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And in May of 2024, it happened.​​​​
The day of.
On may 10 2024, there was a buzz in the astronomy community. Over the preceding days, multiple X and M class solar flares had caused several earth facing CMEs. While nobody knew at the time quite how historic of an event this would be, news was spreading rapidly about its potential.
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I was sitting in a cafe reading all of this news when i checked the aurora forecast for the night.
For context, the auroral oval is often a faint green band that hardly extends past Antarctica. To have any hint of yellow is exciting, and a brief hint of red often means a naked eye visible aurora. On this day however, the entire oval was a thick red band, something i had never seen before. So with that i decided to drive into the Mackenzie basin to try and photograph what could be the best aurora of my life to date (spoiler: it was).
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The conditions on the night were perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, the new moon, 44 degrees south and bortle 1 skies from horizon to horizon, if there was any place to be in the Southern Hemisphere, this was it.
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I arrived at my location at around 5pm local time, and hiked until i came across a small alpine tarn. Not long after setting up my gear, i saw my first hint of the aurora. This image was taken on my phone at 6pm through the twilight, i couldn't believe i could already see the red colors before it was even dark.
It didn't take long for the aurora to show up, with vibrant colors flashing on the horizon. But just when it was starting to get really impressive, it stopped. This was a type of aurora display i hadn't experienced before, the sky just became bright and hazy, with no structure or movement. It was almost like a fog had covered the whole sky and washed away the stars. I even debated packing my things and going home, but a voice in my head told me to wait it out, just to see what would happen. Thank goodness i did, because a couple of hours later the sky completely exploded. I later learned this "explosion" is called a substorm, akin to a magnetic rubber band pulling back and being released, and to date i think this was the single most incredible sight i have witnessed. I scrambled to set up my camera and wide angle lens, and took a quick panorama of what i saw in front of me.
It may not seem like it, but this is a panorama of the entire southern half of the sky. The view stretches due east to west, and up beyond zenith. This auroral structure, if that's even a term, was happening right above me and evolving so fast that the panorama is equally a blend of both space and time, as the last few photos are of a different phase to the first few. To the eye, the colors were not as saturated, but were clearly visible as beams of red and green light. The whole shape pulsated and flickered like a jacob's ladder, almost as if it were alive.
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After taking plenty of photos, i eventually just sat back and enjoyed the show, realizing that perhaps i would never get a chance to see such an event again - especially outside of the polar regions. After an hour or so things began to settle down, and the stars slowly reemerged. It was at this moment, looking up at the core of the Milky Way that i realized it might be possible to photograph both of these targets together in the same frame. If i could pull this off, it would be a very rare photograph to capture, possible only in a very small part of the world, during the right time of year/moon phase etc.
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I pointed my phone at the Milky Way, just to see what i might look like, and sure enough it showed up on the screen. The sky was still bright red from the aurora but at least i knew it would be possible in theory.
Over the next few hours the aurora progressively came and went, cycling between diffuse hazes and substorm explosions. I captured hundreds of images during this time, and several panoramas (most of which i am still yet to edit). At one point in the night, the zenith lit up with waves of green light, flickering above like they were being pulled with invisible strings. I didn't think it would ever be possible to see this from New Zealand, and that it would only be possible from Antarctica or Iceland, but sure enough there it was.
Eventually things did start to quieten down, and i thought this might be the chance to shoot the Milky Way core through the aurora. I switched out my lens for a 28mm, my go to for panoramas and began shooting the sky around me. Unfortunately the entire sky was deeply saturated with red light, which while beautiful, made it impossible to reveal the Milky Way in the way i had hoped. By this point i had been out for well over 8 hours and was getting ready to call it quits. I just seen the most amazing display of southern lights in my life, but i couldn't shake the feeling that i needed to keep trying for this shot.
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I decided to throw in the towel and drive back, but about halfway as i was driving past a conservation area, i decided to pull over and give it one more try. I placed the camera on the roof of my car and pointed it towards the sky, just to see if anything had changed, and to my surprise the Milky Way was now shining through.
I quickly gathered all my gear and ran down to a location i had photographed once before, a small stream with a clear view to the south. The Milky Way core was now directly on top of the sky, and the aurora was still glowing to the south. I set my things up and began shooting, and this is what i captured, perhaps one of my favorite and most unique images to date.
Despite predictions that the aurora storm may continue for an additional day or two, that was the end of the display. It was such a surreal event to witness that looking back on my photos of it, i still can't quite believe it happened. In the aftermath of the magnetic storm, the internet was flooded with images from all around the world, the aurora borealis was seen as far south as Hawaii, and the aurora australis as far north as Namibia. Some estimates have put it as the brightest and widest seen display in over half a millennium.
There have been a few good auroras since then, and had been a few leading up to it, but i feel as if my dopamine receptors for the aurora have been well and truly fried after experiencing that, and it's left me wanting to travel to see it again. From here the only way to top that experience will be to head up into the far north in winter some day. Stay tuned :)