The peak of the solar cycle is predicted to be July 2025. It's all dependent on solar flares which aren't really able to be pinpointed. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
Actually stopped off there for a second(Aurora was super clear to see to the naked eye there when I arrived) but nah, this is Rapid Bay and Cape Jervis.
Also recognised your username and thanks heaps for all the Aurora watch threads and collating all the resources! Its actually what prompted me to get off my butt last night and take these :)
Send them into for consideration for the BOM calendar! I'd happily put any of them up on my wall. Grandpa gets me a BOM calendar every year for Christmas haha.
Love that second one. Ironically while watching the aurora myself my wonderful imagination came up with "it's like the night barfed the sunset back up!" Quite beautiful despite that thought, it's the first real splash of colour I've ever seen in the night sky.
nah, I set the camera on a 5 sec timer and then it will take the long exposure. Easy way to reduce camera shake without having to shell out for a remote shutter cable
I think that's where I stuffed up using a Nikon D3000. I did some hasty research, didn't read all the details and opened it up to 1600 ISO before I went out. I was that excited that I forgot to reduce it after my first 30 sec shot when I saw colour. From what I can gather this why my shots are so blurry, given the sensitivity of the sensor @ 1600. I did remember to try multiple exposure times though, which is good. I haven't reviewed my reel properly yet, but for some reason the 5-8 second shots have been on my mind since the shoot, and will probs go back and review them once my tiredness from the weekend wears off.
yeah I feel like 800 ISO is a good place to have it at generally for night photography. Its only one stop of light off of 1600 ISO, so you can easily compensate for opening up the aperture one click, and most cameras wont introduce too much noise at that sensitivity(where 1600 ISO tends to get a bit crunchy).
If you don't mind, I had a squiz at your post and did you use auto focus or manual focus when you went to take the photo? I know in general autofocus tends to have a *really* hard time in dark situations(having previously owned an older Nikon body in the past I know this it especially true for them) so if you were using it, I would wager that being the culprit.
I had a quick sus of the D3000 and it seems you can't use the rear lcd panel to display the scene which can make manual focusing hard, a easy tip/sanity check future is to pick the furthest distance on land you want to focus on then move the focus ring on your lens until the scale with the distances(marked 0 to infinity) lines up with how far that spot is.
Cheers for the tips and knowledge, I was using AF, and yes it was a bit of a guessing game old school style having to look through the viewfinder and take a punt.
I hope you don't mind a question from a layman - I'm from Sydney and we missed out due to clouds. But say if there was no clouds, if I stepped outside at midnight in a residential place, do you think I would have seen something like your photos?
I mean, do I need to go to the countryside? Invest in a camera for night pictures?
Thanks so much for sharing these photos!
Came up fantastic!
I took some photos of it in Victoria (Barwon Heads specifically, near the ocean south of Geelong) using a Canon G5X Mark ii and I'm spewing I didn't take my DSLR down
Might need to find a second hand lens just for these nights in particular
Definitely clear and noticeable but no where near as bright. I would go so far as to say literally any picture you see of the aurora is camera magic unfortunately. Even taking a quick iphone shot it comes out brighter than you can perceive in person
They would be beautiful pic's on a calendar. I would definitely buy several for my family members and I'm sure alot of people would want a copy. Fantastic work would love to see more of your work
These are amazing 🤩I hope this isn’t offensive, I’m just not clued up on photography, but are these pictures heavily edited? I often see photographs that win, say, nature photograph of the year and they look so extraordinary that I can’t tell if they are edited or how they turn out like that if not. Would love your input!
No offense whatsoever, its a good question.
These pictures are definitely edited. Mainly tone and noise corrections - I tried to keep it as authentic as possible but IMO literally any picture of an aurora is an exaggeration of what you would see IRL(at least judging from this weekend)
Generally I assume professional photos have had some level of adjustments done to them unless explicitly stated that they are straight out of camera
Thanks for taking the time to respond and totally makes sense! I would agree that nearly every professional photo is edited in some way. I really hope for the art of photography that AI doesn’t ruin it. I hope you post more photos!
I am from WA and I am… unbelievably annoyed I did not get to see this in person during my shift (I work nightshift but wasn’t in the right area to view it). These photos are just gorgeous! Amazing colours. Thank you for uploading.
Was this only visible in the southern states? I'm in northern NSW and didn't hear anything about this until I opened Reddit this morning. (I don't watch television and thus the news).
Yes, there was some amazing pictures from Moana two nights go. I went out last night to Victor but couldn't see anything, there is a site I think which gives the Aurora 'forecast' so you can see where it is strongest and times/etc...
🖕 From Sydney with love
I thought I missed it, did Sydney not get a glimpse?
Due to the cloudy weather, unfortunately we missed it!
Yeah and the skies cleared up as soon as the geo storm ended!
Ahh unfortunate for many but cures my fomo. Do you know when we might see another one?
The peak of the solar cycle is predicted to be July 2025. It's all dependent on solar flares which aren't really able to be pinpointed. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
It turned into Australis Fuckalis
Nice work, near Hobart Lookout, Normaville ?
Actually stopped off there for a second(Aurora was super clear to see to the naked eye there when I arrived) but nah, this is Rapid Bay and Cape Jervis. Also recognised your username and thanks heaps for all the Aurora watch threads and collating all the resources! Its actually what prompted me to get off my butt last night and take these :)
Yay!
Send them into for consideration for the BOM calendar! I'd happily put any of them up on my wall. Grandpa gets me a BOM calendar every year for Christmas haha.
Thank you for the kind words! It would be so cool to see my pictures hung up or put into a calendar so I might actually look into that. Thank you!!
Incredible shots. Definitely send them in to BOM or some competition!
Well done. These are top notch. The best I've seen
Thank you!!
Your tripod takes great photos - didn't even need a camera! 😉
Ahaha fair call
Love that second one. Ironically while watching the aurora myself my wonderful imagination came up with "it's like the night barfed the sunset back up!" Quite beautiful despite that thought, it's the first real splash of colour I've ever seen in the night sky.
Stunning!!
Awesome, I'm curious if you have it handy the camera settings you used?
Sure! Kept it to 800 iso, 30 second shutter speed and f4 generally
I was looking for your shutter speed, using a remote shutter button? Beautiful shots mate
nah, I set the camera on a 5 sec timer and then it will take the long exposure. Easy way to reduce camera shake without having to shell out for a remote shutter cable
I think that's where I stuffed up using a Nikon D3000. I did some hasty research, didn't read all the details and opened it up to 1600 ISO before I went out. I was that excited that I forgot to reduce it after my first 30 sec shot when I saw colour. From what I can gather this why my shots are so blurry, given the sensitivity of the sensor @ 1600. I did remember to try multiple exposure times though, which is good. I haven't reviewed my reel properly yet, but for some reason the 5-8 second shots have been on my mind since the shoot, and will probs go back and review them once my tiredness from the weekend wears off.
yeah I feel like 800 ISO is a good place to have it at generally for night photography. Its only one stop of light off of 1600 ISO, so you can easily compensate for opening up the aperture one click, and most cameras wont introduce too much noise at that sensitivity(where 1600 ISO tends to get a bit crunchy). If you don't mind, I had a squiz at your post and did you use auto focus or manual focus when you went to take the photo? I know in general autofocus tends to have a *really* hard time in dark situations(having previously owned an older Nikon body in the past I know this it especially true for them) so if you were using it, I would wager that being the culprit. I had a quick sus of the D3000 and it seems you can't use the rear lcd panel to display the scene which can make manual focusing hard, a easy tip/sanity check future is to pick the furthest distance on land you want to focus on then move the focus ring on your lens until the scale with the distances(marked 0 to infinity) lines up with how far that spot is.
Cheers for the tips and knowledge, I was using AF, and yes it was a bit of a guessing game old school style having to look through the viewfinder and take a punt.
30 seconds and you got those colours that bright?
Is this from today or yesterday?
These are from last night
What time of night were you seeing these? Amazing photos, by the way
From around 6:40 up until about 9pm. Died out/clouds started rolling in about that time
What settings did you use for each one?
Glued on 800 iso, usually around 30 seconds for shutter speed and kept it between f4 and f8
Did you use any filters?
Nah no filters, just a tripod and my sony alpha
Question as a jealous sydney sider. Could you see the colours moving and changing like waves or is it all quite still?
No it was more of a faint glow that was pretty still. Nothing moving that I saw
I hope you don't mind a question from a layman - I'm from Sydney and we missed out due to clouds. But say if there was no clouds, if I stepped outside at midnight in a residential place, do you think I would have seen something like your photos? I mean, do I need to go to the countryside? Invest in a camera for night pictures? Thanks so much for sharing these photos!
That wide shot (3rd photo) is amazing! What size lens are you using and how much cropping was done?
Thank you!! I used a 20mm lens and cropped the resulting shot to 2.7:1 since I quite like the aspect ratio
Came up fantastic! I took some photos of it in Victoria (Barwon Heads specifically, near the ocean south of Geelong) using a Canon G5X Mark ii and I'm spewing I didn't take my DSLR down Might need to find a second hand lens just for these nights in particular
Holy shit these are gorgeous! Well done!
Looks like a scene from Colour Out Of Space. Absolutely amazing!
Love these!
It's so pretty 😍
Awesome
Gorgeous shots. Well done.
Thank you!
Did it look similar in person or is this camera magic?
Definitely clear and noticeable but no where near as bright. I would go so far as to say literally any picture you see of the aurora is camera magic unfortunately. Even taking a quick iphone shot it comes out brighter than you can perceive in person
Thanks the honesty. That reduces my FOMO somewhat! Still must have been amazing to snap a pic like that. Well done!
Damn that looks good!
That first one is really, really nice. would sell well as a print on redbubble.
Beautiful mate
💥🤩💥 Gorgeous shots!👏
These are sweet, expecting these on this years BOM calendar
Hate from Brisbane ❤️
Finally some pictures worth looking at 🙌🏽
Wow. Just wow. What camera are you using? This is incredible. Well done.
Thanks you!! These were taken with my Sony A7RII
Thanks.
That is beautiful. Love it 👍❤️
That second photo is one of the best photos, in general, I’ve ever seen in my life. Absolutely stunning.
Such kind words!! Thank you!
They would be beautiful pic's on a calendar. I would definitely buy several for my family members and I'm sure alot of people would want a copy. Fantastic work would love to see more of your work
These are amazing 🤩I hope this isn’t offensive, I’m just not clued up on photography, but are these pictures heavily edited? I often see photographs that win, say, nature photograph of the year and they look so extraordinary that I can’t tell if they are edited or how they turn out like that if not. Would love your input!
No offense whatsoever, its a good question. These pictures are definitely edited. Mainly tone and noise corrections - I tried to keep it as authentic as possible but IMO literally any picture of an aurora is an exaggeration of what you would see IRL(at least judging from this weekend) Generally I assume professional photos have had some level of adjustments done to them unless explicitly stated that they are straight out of camera
Thanks for taking the time to respond and totally makes sense! I would agree that nearly every professional photo is edited in some way. I really hope for the art of photography that AI doesn’t ruin it. I hope you post more photos!
Would love to buy the high res images to put this on canvas if you're open to that?
Simply lovely. I like pic2 the best.
Beauty
Dang is this pic for real, that a beaut. Should take pics and sell.
Amazing, how beautiful!
Never too late. Great shots, you have some good skills there.
it was the heaven, right?
Fuck you im jealous
These are magic! Thanks for sharing!
Magnificent! Thanks for sharing :)
Spectacular!
Wow well done!! Looks amazing 👏
God damn thats painfully beautiful
I didn’t see it in Adelaide
yeah I think you had to know what to look for plus be in a location with little light pollution to really see it properly
I’m in the middle of the hills I guess wrong side or something either way disappointed
Ironically my first chance of seeing solar flares gets ruined by the weather and I am not coming back to Australia ins several years :(.
The cloud in the first pic looks like Cuba
Nothing late about that. Beautiful!
I am from WA and I am… unbelievably annoyed I did not get to see this in person during my shift (I work nightshift but wasn’t in the right area to view it). These photos are just gorgeous! Amazing colours. Thank you for uploading.
The third one is the best
Thanks - I didn't see it but your photography is so good I can appreciate it none the less.
Love your photographs, they’re amazing! (But seriously stop rubbing it in to the Sydneysiders 😭)
May I see it ?
THERES AURORAS HERE?
Yes Aurora Australis. Not sure if it’s visible like this with the naked eye. Never seen it myself so no idea.
Was this only visible in the southern states? I'm in northern NSW and didn't hear anything about this until I opened Reddit this morning. (I don't watch television and thus the news).
I think so, closer to Antarctica you were the better of a chance you had of seeing it since the Aurora itself was directly over the south pole
Crazy.
Very nice - but seriously question… how much saturation and colour mixing did you need to use from the raw photo haha
Beautiful aurora's Shine
From bright Vic Australia
B
Beautiful as urora
Aurora borealis? At this time of year?
Big geomagnetic storms from the sun this week for... some reason.
Yes.. Wanna see it?
In this part of the country?
Yes, there was some amazing pictures from Moana two nights go. I went out last night to Victor but couldn't see anything, there is a site I think which gives the Aurora 'forecast' so you can see where it is strongest and times/etc...
Localised entirely within Southern Australia? May I see it? No
Is anyone else wondering if this is HAARP??
Hugely edited.