Southern Lights.
Wednesday November 10th, 2004.
It had been a hot day, hazy at times and with little wind. After a long, languorous evening, I was clearing up and went to close the kitchen blinds. As I did so, my eyes were drawn to a peculiar sight, high in the sky. The clouds were high and skittering along, but from time to time, they glowed with an almost iridescent green glow. With it being close to Guy Fawkes night (November 5th) and also not long after the Hindu festival of lights (Diwali), I wondered it somewhere, someone, was enjoying the marvels of a laser light show. It continued for an hour and grew more and more intense, so when Eric arrived home from a meeting, I asked him if he would drive out to a place we knew, where there were no street lights to interfere, so we could see more clearly what was happening. By this time I was totally convinced that I was seeing a spectacular display of the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights.
I only got one picture. I found my batteries were almost dead, and using the night vision takes more �juice� than normal photos! However, when we arrived on the cliff top above Tunnel Beach, others were already there, including a group of University students, one of whom, Jeremy, took these two and emailed them to us to include here! The little line of lights to the bottom, right, are the street lights of one of the smaller townships, along the coast from Dunedin - night vision turns them green!
Picture by Jeremy Marshall
Thanks to Jeremy, we can share something of the magical feeling of that night! It got very cold so it wasn�t wise to linger for too long, but the beauty of the aurora will remain in my mind for a long time to come!
Picture by Jeremy Marshall
Just how much longer the lights could be seen that night, we don�t know. The fact that for me they lasted over 2 hours was wonderful and very special! The star formation in the foreground just might be the Southern Cross. I have to check up on that! We were definitely looking in the right direction. I'd better find my planesphere and check up!
Okay, I checked and if my calculations are correct, it is the "false cross", not the Southern Cross! I will recheck and if needs be, confirm things here! Never fear, I'm on the case!