Red Aurora Australis

After chasing it for more than two years I was finally rewarded with two displays of Aurora Australis (Southern lights) within a week visible from Mornington peninsula, not far from Melbourne. The nights were warm an clear and the Moon was not in the sky either - I could not have asked for better conditions.

The red color of this aurora is caused by the charged particles from the Sun exciting oxygen atoms high in the Earth's atmosphere. Hopefully there will be more to come as Sun's activity increases in 2012-13.

Being able to photograph it all night I came up with a nice video. The brighter Aurora happened on January 22nd and the smaller one, featured in the middle section, was from January 16th, followed by a rather bright Moonrise.

Images and blog:
http://www.terrastro.com/blog/red-aur...

Time lapse motion control performed with Dynamic Perception Stage Zero ( http://www.dynamicperception.com )

Music: Coral Reef by Psychadelik Pedestrian
http://www.toucanmusic.co.uk/releases...

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Anle Fan]

am i really able to see the beutiful sky like this??? I live in Melbourne, and Mornington penisula is near melbourne, but why can't i see the sky like these in melbourne?

[terrastro]

yes, you need to escape the city lights. On the ocean beaches of Mornington peninsula the sky looking south is good.

[MegaKneeSlappers]

where is that!



[terrastro]

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. About 90kms from Melbourne

[Xhoni ItsJohnny]

man pls tell me is this real or is fake if its fake and you cant tell in public pls send me message if its true reply in front of all ..the reason im asking is cos i wanna go there like for vaca.'s but im not sure so pls reply a.s.a.p. and tell me what time of the year it was when you went there and filmed this

[terrastro]

It is real and if you read the description then you will find out the exact dates when it was filmed. Bear in mind though that Aurorae are very difficult to predict and there is no guarantee of seeing one there in January or any other month.

[António Santos]

Whos more impressed by the galaxy than the auroras?

[Alex R-T]

This is amazing, like oil on water, also 0:50 - is that andromeda in the top right?

[Dex Ter]

also... you have to consider that the camera used in this clip can pick up light that our human eyes cannot.. there are soo many stars in the universe that the way that we consider certain parts to have a black hole present is because there is no light eminating from it.. nice tip btw if i ever visit there ill know where to go lol...

[ariana alva]

yeah

[gerbilPROJECT]

The first thirty seconds of this video just earned you a subscriber. :D

[XxBreakingBenjaminlo]

Beautiful! :D

[SidusSynchronicity]

Stunning! Absolutely stunning! Thank you for sharing this.

[2001cavador]

So many small meteorites! I am in AWE!

[nataliezelenymusic]

The sky looks unrealistic..

[Buuub08]

The color depends on the intensity and altitude. Different elements at different altitudes at different stages of excitement give different colors. Basically it can be almost any color.

[Buuub08]

You need to know when to look.