AURORA

From where I used to live in Western Australia the latitude is -32, and as a result aurora are rare. However around the time of solar maximum we do get to see the occassional display. Here are a some of the displays I observed and successfully photographed.

February 18, 1983

March 23, 1989

April 7, 2000

March 31, 2001

In August 2001, I moved from Western Australia to Northfield, Minnesota. This move was made around the time of the last sunspot maximum, and in the 2 years I lived in Minnesota, I saw more aurora than in all my years in Western Australia combined! At one stage the aurora was so bright, that I had to cancel a student observing exercise as it was not possible to observe anything else in the sky! It was then that I began to see just why some observers consider aurora to be a form of light plooution! After a while, they became so routine that I stopped taking a full roll of photographs each time a display occured.