Oh what a night! The aurora of May 11 2024 was an incredible night under the southern lights not just in Tasmania but all over the world.

In the week leading up to May 11, a major sunspot on the sun fired off multiple major (X-class) flares in succession, leading astronomers to predict a very impressive showing of the aurora sometime over the weekend of May 11 & 12. They were not wrong.

I woke in Smithton around 4:00 for some reason, and checked the phone to see dozens of alerts. It was the last day of my Tarkine tour, so I woke everyone and we shot some amazing scenes from Smithton (those pics are to come shortly). The aurora went all day long and upon returning to Hobart it was off again to Seven Mile Beach to see what was going on.

Even on the drive out we could see light all around, including very visible red. Normally to the naked eye I’ve only managed to see green tinges through a mostly white light, so to see vibrant pinky reds was very exciting. The light was all over the sky, east, west, north and directly overhead. Once we arrived at the beach I was spinning around like a top not knowing which way to look or photograph first! It was amazing.

For those who might have read my previous blog posts on when does the aurora appear in Tasmania you might be interested to know where this one sat in terms of numbers. This storm was a G5 (K9) class event which is the strongest on the scale. The Bz (which is one of the key indicators of an auroras strength) was as low as -50 during Saturday and spent most of the day in the -30’s and -40’s which guaranteed fireworks as soon as it was dark.

And, not that I’m trying to drop hints or anything, but the last time I got a shot like the ones below, it ended up as the back cover of my first book. Could a new book be on the horizon…?