It was a spectacular naked eye event, bright enough for me to view in full colour. In fact I left intervalometers driving the two cameras relatively unattended, kept my screen based device use to a minimum and just enjoyed the show. I did snap a couple of handheld iPhone pics and post them to the Aurora group based around Canberra & SE NSW that I'm a member of but I tried to keep my eyes on the sky. The images were only captured at 10s f2.8 @ ISO 3200.
So I could see a slightly desaturated version of what you see in the photos.
The green on the horizon was a bit washed out at times, a whitish grey-green. I suspect that was the air pollution/extinction altering the colour and reducing the intensity. Other times the green was more vivid especially when it extended to a slightly higher elevation.
The auroral arc (general broad red glow) was red to the naked eye up to just below the southern cross naked eye. The vertical pillars were white and pulsating to become red. I was seeing pulsations of those pillar on a sub-second time scale. The pillars were more distinct to the eye because they were moving east to west (left to right across the southern sky) so slightly blurred on the 10s exposures.
The location was the Birdcage Rest Area on the Sturt Highway(see attached map). Nominally a Bortle 1 location and more importantly, nearest medium sized towns and cities to the south were 200-300km south, Bendigo, Echuca, Shepparton, and Albury-Wodonga. The photos show no sign of light domes from those towns on the horizon and I couldn't see any.
I have adjusted the attached photo as best I can, to resemble my perception of the visual appearance in colour and saturation and apparent light intensity.
Thanks so much for that Joe. I almost feel like I was there. Also thankyou for going to the trouble to adjust your image to give a semblance of what it looked like to the naked eye.
Next time I'll try to get there! Maybe AR3664 will still have some or even gained some more juice when/if it comes around again.
Those Aurora pics are awesome!
Only wish I took more notice of these storms coming in and drove out to Moree or further west to get a clear sky? Way too cloudy at home with misty clouds and drizzle
Maybe that sunspot group will come back with all barrels firing?
Joe thanks for that adjusted pic.The media tends to like to overstimulate the public.And although I missed the show I did view Auroral activity it was just very low key in Tassie before the event.Just a whiteish haze in the low horizon clouds but dancing up and down.
Derek
