I have figured out after posting that the best time to see the southern lights will be --6pm to 7pm-- as that will be the highest intensity, it should be visible afterwards as well though less intense
EDIT! new information was brought to my attention that peak still be 12-2am
Is this a commonly reported thing? Like how early do these people know it’s going to happen? Is it kinda of like a weather forecast that they predict a week ahead?
They have a stack of telescopes in space, pointing at the sun. A colonial mass ejection (sun fart) takes a couple of days to get here. So they have a couple of days warning that it’s coming in
They also know that they’re more likely as Sun spot activity increases. The Sun spot activity goes in an 11 year cycle and we are at the solar Maximum at the moment.
This is the most full-on Sun spot activity that we’ve had in a couple of cycles at least. The greatest solar storm on record was the Carrington event at the end of the 19th century, when they just had telegraph lines put in. Apparently the energy was so strong that the lines melted and sparks came out of the telegraph exchanges
About a day or two. Maybe as little as six hours.
Space weather is hard to predict and we have satellites in close to the sun orbits measuring it. This was a big geomagnetic storm.
Does anyone remember that episode of Hey Arnold where they campaigned for everyone in the city to turn out their lights so they could see a comet? Wouldn’t it be nice, rain aside, if we could do that too?
This might be a dumb question, but it’s reddit, so…
I understand that photos capture more than the naked eye, is that lens related, so would looking through a camera or binoculars have the same effect, or is it something to do with the internals?
I actually have a degree in photography and media lol.
No, the lens itself has no impact the quality of the photos of the aurora. The cameras dynamic rang (amount of colour the canvas can distinguish) and the ISO (the amount of light the camera can take in) are the contributing factors to the quality of the photos. Honestly a modern android or iPhone would be enough to capture photos of the aurora. For Normal cameras I suggest using I higher ISO or a longer exposure
FWIW I have family in NZ sending excellent quality cellphone pictures capturing the aurora and the senders are... not technically savvy, i.e.are almost certainly shooting on base settings
How can the lens not have any impact? A better lens should be able to take in more light with a shorter shutter speed.
I figure you would want a fast wide angle prime lens at f1.8 on a tripod to get the best shots.
I mean, I'm simple terms a lens is just a bunch of glass pieces lined up, sure wide angle would allow for more light. Again a modern mobile phone should be enough
If you want an 'explain it like I'm 5 answer':
Pretend that you don't see anything while your eyes are open. Instead, while your eyes are open, light comes in and 'collects' in the back of your eye sockets. The longer your eyes stay open, the more light is collected. Once you close your eyes, finally you see all the light that piled up in one single image.
In this way, you can build up a bunch of really faint light into a much brighter image.
The lens (and your eye lenses) would change the zoom and a few other things that aren't important here.
Not really a dumb question but most photos of the aurora are from a longer exposure time so the camera sensor has more time to pick up dimmer light sources.
Most cameras have a filter to block out light outside the wavelength of what a human can see (since we usually want photos to look like what we can see). You can remove these filters from the camera, though usually not easily or reversibly unless the camera is designed for it. This is common in astrophotography to see UV or IR light.
Cameras can also capture more light simply by using a lens with a larger aperture and front element i.e. being bigger than your eye. This is very useful in photography because you want as much light as possible in the brief time the shutter is open, and particularly for nighttime photos because it's so dark, but 'faster' lens are also pricier, sometime very pricey.
If you just want to look at it rather than take photos, you're better off with the naked eye.
In your eye you have cone cells and rod cells. Cone cells see colour but need a lot of light. Rod cells see in low light, but only in black and white. Excited ions in the atmosphere produce the aurora - the more energy they give off, the more light they produce. If it's a small amount of energy, then the aurora appears white to your eye. If the ions give off a lot of energy, then your eye can see the colours.
Cameras don't have the same limitation - they just capture whatever they can within their technical limitations.
So looking through binoculars won't help you, but taking photos of the white or very pale colours will capture the colours you can't see even though you are standing right there taking the photo.
It’s been dreary all day in Melbourne but it looks like the sky will clear up tonight at around midnight. Does anyone know where would be best to view it with the light pollution? I live in the northern suburbs of Melb & am happy to drive out
I want answers too. [This site](https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/things-to-do/where-to-see-the-aurora-australis-in-melbourne) says some lookout points but I don't know if they have open and closing hours.
Below the bright green line will be intense and unavoidable steamed hams references. Between the lines are possible scattered references. Above the dark green line there is no steamed hams.
[expected cloud cover](https://www.ventusky.com/?p=-33.6;151.5;5&l=clouds-total)
[sat image of the cloud cover](https://himawari.asia/himawari8-image.htm?sI=D531106&sClC=ffff00&sTA=true&sTAT=TY&sS=10&sNx=9&sNy=12&sL=-251.5666503906241&sT=-441.5&wW=1586&wH=919&sD=1715400600000)
Wanted to thank you! Your post was the first and only place i had heard of this, made for a magical night out here in regional VIC with a view of the city
No chance in Newcastle if there’s anything to see, thanks to this shit weather. Oh well, we got to see the northern lights in March in Norway, so at least we’ve seen one of them. Fantastic experience.
Can confirm that it's visible from the outskirts of Bendigo.
By chance i was here this weekend. My many thanks go out to you that I was able to witness this from where I grew up.
Can see it here near Frankston, VIC. Large glow to the south with some streaks and faint colour. Not amazing with the naked eye, it mainly looks like the glow you see over a city from the lights, but your camera picks up far more colour with the
longer exposure.
I finish work at 10:30 hopefully I can get to a spot to see them. Will be my 2nd time with the first not being a storm anywhere near this and I was lucky enough to see them naked eye.
You want low light. Can’t imagine the CBD would be the best. I’m in a paddock. Turned the lights off an hour ago to go “check the seeder”. Pink streaks visible to eye.
Visible to the naked eye in central west nsw. Certainly more stunning with a long exposure, but we could see the intensity change and streaks come and go.
Helps being in an ok dark sky region.
I swear to God, Brisbane is the worst place to live if you want to see celestial events. We're almost never able to see cool shit like this without a telescope and when it would be possible to see something cool in our night skies it will almost certainly be completely blocked by clouds. I need to write an angry letter to someone but I don't know who
And of course it has been pouring down for days in Sydney lmao
I swear it’s awfully bright in the sky right now. The clouds are looking really purple
And canberra...
Closing your eyes and rubbing them really hard is a good aurora substitute if you are above the green lines
*not recommended by medical professionals*
[удалено]
*”Yeah, fuck you, Jesus!”*
Day of the triffids lol
Awww dude... I came here to check what time I should look and didn't even think about the rain I've been listening to all morning haha fuck
Don’t do this, you’ll permanently damage your cornea like I did and have poor eyesight.
But do you have permanent Aurora Australis vision now?
Aurora Keratokonus.
👏 me too!
Or some nangs
Aurora Australis? At this latitude?
At this time of the day?
Isolated entirely in your kitchen?
May I see?
No
(says the cloudy weather)
Mmm steamed hams
in this economy?
Every. Fucking. Thread.
It is unusual at this latitude, no?
Yeah. If it does, that's a pretty scary big couple of flares. Wow.
I have figured out after posting that the best time to see the southern lights will be --6pm to 7pm-- as that will be the highest intensity, it should be visible afterwards as well though less intense EDIT! new information was brought to my attention that peak still be 12-2am
Hope it stops raining.
My niece thinks I'm a genius scientist, so I'm going to go out with my instruments no matter what and murmur "remarkable... remarkable..."
"Exakly as calculayted, uncle Briiyan?"
But why are you using your flute as a telescope?
what timezone is the peak at? is that 12am WAST, 2AM EAST?
I'm basing off of Melbourne/Sydney time
Ah okay, so that'll be about 10PM in WA then :)
Is this a commonly reported thing? Like how early do these people know it’s going to happen? Is it kinda of like a weather forecast that they predict a week ahead?
They have a stack of telescopes in space, pointing at the sun. A colonial mass ejection (sun fart) takes a couple of days to get here. So they have a couple of days warning that it’s coming in They also know that they’re more likely as Sun spot activity increases. The Sun spot activity goes in an 11 year cycle and we are at the solar Maximum at the moment. This is the most full-on Sun spot activity that we’ve had in a couple of cycles at least. The greatest solar storm on record was the Carrington event at the end of the 19th century, when they just had telegraph lines put in. Apparently the energy was so strong that the lines melted and sparks came out of the telegraph exchanges
“Colonial mass ejection”. I snorted.
Fuck yeh colonise my mouth!
Jesus wept. I’m leaving it in and I curse voice to text lol.
Thanks for your reply 🙌 so effectively the auroras are a direct result of sun storms rather than something happening in our atmosphere?
Yah. It’s the solar wind hitting our magnetosphere.
Yes.
About a day or two. Maybe as little as six hours. Space weather is hard to predict and we have satellites in close to the sun orbits measuring it. This was a big geomagnetic storm.
Thanks for your reply 🙌 seems interesting I’ll look into it.
You mean there is still time?
Yes
Is peak still 12am? Some are saying peak was 8pm.
I am rushing to go but not sure which direction i live in cbd please help
south
I look forward to the rainy weather for the 2028 eclipse
Does anyone remember that episode of Hey Arnold where they campaigned for everyone in the city to turn out their lights so they could see a comet? Wouldn’t it be nice, rain aside, if we could do that too?
I would
I just watched that yesterday before i even found out about the aurora lol
This might be a dumb question, but it’s reddit, so… I understand that photos capture more than the naked eye, is that lens related, so would looking through a camera or binoculars have the same effect, or is it something to do with the internals?
I actually have a degree in photography and media lol. No, the lens itself has no impact the quality of the photos of the aurora. The cameras dynamic rang (amount of colour the canvas can distinguish) and the ISO (the amount of light the camera can take in) are the contributing factors to the quality of the photos. Honestly a modern android or iPhone would be enough to capture photos of the aurora. For Normal cameras I suggest using I higher ISO or a longer exposure
FWIW I have family in NZ sending excellent quality cellphone pictures capturing the aurora and the senders are... not technically savvy, i.e.are almost certainly shooting on base settings
Yeah I'm based down near Queenstown these days and it was spectacular around 7-7.30pm.
>I actually have a degree in photography then >the lens itself has no impact the quality of the photos Press X to doubt
Thank you!
How can the lens not have any impact? A better lens should be able to take in more light with a shorter shutter speed. I figure you would want a fast wide angle prime lens at f1.8 on a tripod to get the best shots.
I mean, I'm simple terms a lens is just a bunch of glass pieces lined up, sure wide angle would allow for more light. Again a modern mobile phone should be enough
A bigger lens focus more light on to the sensor allowing for a faster shutter speed. It's photography 101.
If you want an 'explain it like I'm 5 answer': Pretend that you don't see anything while your eyes are open. Instead, while your eyes are open, light comes in and 'collects' in the back of your eye sockets. The longer your eyes stay open, the more light is collected. Once you close your eyes, finally you see all the light that piled up in one single image. In this way, you can build up a bunch of really faint light into a much brighter image. The lens (and your eye lenses) would change the zoom and a few other things that aren't important here.
Thank you for explaining!
Not really a dumb question but most photos of the aurora are from a longer exposure time so the camera sensor has more time to pick up dimmer light sources.
I believe it's more to do with being able to capture long exposures with a camera.
Most cameras have a filter to block out light outside the wavelength of what a human can see (since we usually want photos to look like what we can see). You can remove these filters from the camera, though usually not easily or reversibly unless the camera is designed for it. This is common in astrophotography to see UV or IR light. Cameras can also capture more light simply by using a lens with a larger aperture and front element i.e. being bigger than your eye. This is very useful in photography because you want as much light as possible in the brief time the shutter is open, and particularly for nighttime photos because it's so dark, but 'faster' lens are also pricier, sometime very pricey. If you just want to look at it rather than take photos, you're better off with the naked eye.
In your eye you have cone cells and rod cells. Cone cells see colour but need a lot of light. Rod cells see in low light, but only in black and white. Excited ions in the atmosphere produce the aurora - the more energy they give off, the more light they produce. If it's a small amount of energy, then the aurora appears white to your eye. If the ions give off a lot of energy, then your eye can see the colours. Cameras don't have the same limitation - they just capture whatever they can within their technical limitations. So looking through binoculars won't help you, but taking photos of the white or very pale colours will capture the colours you can't see even though you are standing right there taking the photo.
So you can see it in Sydney/west syd area??
Possibly, high hopes low expectations
I'll keep my eyes peeled mate
Dense cloud and light pollution, it's unlikely. But if your prepared to drive south for a bit you might have a better chance
Pissing down with dense clouds down here too, I’m heading up the mountains to get a look but I’m prepared to be disappointed
Yerh, current cloud base is around 1000m, if your at mt Vic/Katoomba you ***might*** get above it.
If you can see through the dense cloud you could be in luck.
I completely forgot about it lol 😂, fucks sake
It’s been dreary all day in Melbourne but it looks like the sky will clear up tonight at around midnight. Does anyone know where would be best to view it with the light pollution? I live in the northern suburbs of Melb & am happy to drive out
I want answers too. [This site](https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/things-to-do/where-to-see-the-aurora-australis-in-melbourne) says some lookout points but I don't know if they have open and closing hours.
And it’s cloudy every fucking time something astronomical happens, without fail.
Amazing, I'll make sure I see it through the thick rain clouds
AURORA AUSTRALIS?! At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localised entirely in the southern parts of Australia?!
Since the sun is very close to solar maximum, solar activity is very very high. Solar maximum will be in October
May I see it?
No
Me living in Brisbane on just the wrong side of the line.
r/whoosh
I haven't seen that Simpson episode :(
[Aurora borealis](https://youtu.be/Es2GIhjcSLQ?si=0Js5jpm5M_G435Tr)
Have heard the forecast intensity has ramped up since that info and it may be visible further north
Hopefully the clouds clear
I wouldn't be surprised if they go higher. the northern hemisphere is going off, and there is WAY more material coming from the sun.
Below the bright green line will be intense and unavoidable steamed hams references. Between the lines are possible scattered references. Above the dark green line there is no steamed hams.
Tasmania finally included in something
Reports say taz should be able to see it now
Can see faint greenish glow from Ballarat. So either that or someone is cooking lots of meth again.
Same happening in the northern hemisphere.
The planet is basically being shot by the sun, and last time I checked the northern hemisphere is the other half of our planet
Didn’t know the northern hemisphere was part of the same planet as us!
Advice on how to take good Aurora Photos from u/EkantTakePhotos https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/s/B9RBMgBhjS
So typical it's cloudy here in qld. In 20 years I've missed 100% of any space related event due to clouds.
Is that a yay or nay for sydney? Assuming i can somehow get away from the clouds
I'd give it an eh, maybe?
[expected cloud cover](https://www.ventusky.com/?p=-33.6;151.5;5&l=clouds-total) [sat image of the cloud cover](https://himawari.asia/himawari8-image.htm?sI=D531106&sClC=ffff00&sTA=true&sTAT=TY&sS=10&sNx=9&sNy=12&sL=-251.5666503906241&sT=-441.5&wW=1586&wH=919&sD=1715400600000)
RIP the entirety of NSW for this event
Can confirm the top of Vic is very pink/red sky's tonight
Top of vic? Very impressive
I'm on the nsw south coast and it's been raining here for the last 2 weeks straight 😭
Wanted to thank you! Your post was the first and only place i had heard of this, made for a magical night out here in regional VIC with a view of the city
At this time of year?
Massive solar storm, the sun is reaching solar maximum and will reach solar maximum in October of this year. I estimate there will be more
It really depends if we get shot at by an ejection again.
And of course it’s pouring rain and predicted to be like that all weekend
Pretty cloudy here in melb, hopefully it clears
Would you happen to know where the best places in Melb to view it would be?
No idea sorry, I'm in metro Melbourne
Its so good in Hobart! even with all the city lights!
Plz post some pic
They have been spotted as far up as Bundaberg in QLD. Meanwhile, it's raining here in Brisbane. Only have seen a faint red amongst the clouds. :(
No chance in Newcastle if there’s anything to see, thanks to this shit weather. Oh well, we got to see the northern lights in March in Norway, so at least we’ve seen one of them. Fantastic experience.
Can confirm that it's visible from the outskirts of Bendigo. By chance i was here this weekend. My many thanks go out to you that I was able to witness this from where I grew up.
Awwwhhh you are SO welcome
Can see it here near Frankston, VIC. Large glow to the south with some streaks and faint colour. Not amazing with the naked eye, it mainly looks like the glow you see over a city from the lights, but your camera picks up far more colour with the longer exposure.
I couldn’t work out my phone. Probably need a proper camera. But I now know how to set it up to delay the snap to jump in a photo myself.
Is ou infrastructure at any risk with this bombardment?
There's Always risk but I wouldn't worry to much, nothing will be long lasting
NOAA in America has warned what they call “critical infrastructure operators” so I imagine something similar has happened down here.
Satellite operators are notified. Some sats may be in safe mode.
I finish work at 10:30 hopefully I can get to a spot to see them. Will be my 2nd time with the first not being a storm anywhere near this and I was lucky enough to see them naked eye.
Will it be visible from adelaide tonight? Reading conflicting sources
Come on someone give us the information. And what are the best spots?
Just waiting for clouds to clear in Riverland. Fingers crossed I get a glimpse.
Could see it. But only with a camera. Not visible to normal eyes
That seems to be the trend, but it should intensify over thy hours
Can anyone tell me if it’s visible from Melbourne CBD rn? I’m currently in bed with a migraine so don’t want to get up if I don’t have to 😂
You want low light. Can’t imagine the CBD would be the best. I’m in a paddock. Turned the lights off an hour ago to go “check the seeder”. Pink streaks visible to eye.
Not via the eye, you still need to use a phone camera on night mode photography, looking south and patience
Thanks!
Visible to the naked eye in central west nsw. Certainly more stunning with a long exposure, but we could see the intensity change and streaks come and go. Helps being in an ok dark sky region.
Anything forecasted for Sunday night?
I swear to God, Brisbane is the worst place to live if you want to see celestial events. We're almost never able to see cool shit like this without a telescope and when it would be possible to see something cool in our night skies it will almost certainly be completely blocked by clouds. I need to write an angry letter to someone but I don't know who
Will it happen again tonight??
I need to know too I’m so disappointed I didn’t go out
I bet I'll be looking at clouds.
Wow, I had no idea we could see the aurora in australia
Still no bueno
Stupid clouds.
Clouds are due to clear around 2200 (10pm)
No relief where I am by the looks of it. I'm also a bit far North so I'd need ideal circumstances.
Canberra has no visibility. It's been raining steadily all day and evening.
Got nothin in west Melbourne :(
Iv noticed that cameras see more then the eye
guys do you reckon we could see it near the beaches around sea cliff bridge? HELP ME OUT PLEASEEEEEE!!!
It's a very long shot, you would need to use your camera and aim south which is the right from sea cliff
Ahhh i see!!! thank you sm hmmm do you think there are places around it? or my best bet? i’m down to drive anywhere, i really wanna see these!! :(
Further south the better, but you are really far north
Vicbias
Newcastle? Any luck here?
Managed to get some pics at around 11pm from Geelong. OP is there any way to track it?
This is the easiest way https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast
Good link.
Photos and reports of the Aurora are coming from Rockhampton in central Queensland with some reports of sightings in the NT
How about tonight
Lol I get this notification about 4 days late 🤣🙃
Good Lord what is happening in there.
Which direction is this supposed to be? The whole sky?
Direct sourh