August has been an exceptional month for aurora-spotting and photographers have been sharing their extraordinary images online, making everyone else glance skyward with envy.

With its elevated position and lack of light pollution, Mount Tarrengower has been a perfect place from which to capture these night rainbows, as Karen Cordell showed in this gorgeous photo that she took with her phone last week.

“I got there just before 10pm and at first I couldn’t see anything,” said Karen, who lives in Lockwood South.

“Then I saw a glimpse of colour in the night sky”¦ it got brighter and brighter. It looked magnificent.”

Aurora australis: what, when and how to see it?

The aurora australis or ‘southern lights’ is the name for shimmering waves of green, red and purple light that appear occasionally in the night sky around the south magnetic pole; conditions have been conducive to local sightings lately.

Australian Antarctic Program scientists describe it as ‘a form of space weather’ that takes place in the earth’s upper atmosphere, between 90 and 250 kilometres above us. Very simply: solar winds and the earth’s magnetic field send charged particles towards the poles at extremely high speeds, which collide with particles in our atmosphere, creating spectacular light explosions. They can only be seen when the sky is very dark and clear.

Prediction tools are available, including apps and the Bureau of Meteorology online at: sws.bom.gov.au/Aurora. However they are only rough estimates and patience may be required; be sure to look to the south.

The sight of an aurora is a mesmerising natural spectacle to behold!

This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 23 August 2024.