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11th March
2011
An X-1 class flare erupted on the Sun on the 9th March
sending a cloud of charged particles towards the Earth. It was a glancing blow,
but the planetary K-index reached 5 (storm) on the night of the 11th March
(Melbourne time) and Bz turned south. Favourable conditions for
aurora, but was Melbourne too far north was a question I was asking myself. I
went for a short drive from home to find a less light-polluted view to the south
and have some pizza for dinner. It was a beautiful sunset, too, with rich reds
spanning around 120° along the western horizon.
By the time I had my pizza the sunset had gone and the sky to
the S and SSW looked an even shade with no obvious auroral activity, but I had
impressions of flickering and movement in the light-polluted sky at the limits
of my vision. So I took a few photos. Seeing the images on the camera's screen
did not convince me that an aurora was in progress. So I left after about an
hour.
Next morning I loaded them
onto the computer and was delighted, though somewhat shocked, to see clear
auroral reds, beams and hints of violet in the images. Moral: look more closely at the images at
the time to better assess the situation! Not spectacular, but these are the first auroras I've imaged
from the Melbourne area since August 2005 - that's too long a wait. Roll on solar max!
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