People who enjoy watching the Aurora were treated to an unexpectedly bright display that lit up the skies. Photographers were able to capture the lights as far north as the Bay of Plenty.
According to the US government’s Space Weather Prediction Centre, their instruments observed changes in the geomagnetic field up to level G4 on their scale during the night from Saturday to Sunday (New Zealand time). This level is high enough to be seen from some populated areas. The scale ranges from one to five, with one being the lowest and five being the highest.
Photographers shared pictures of the colorful lights as far north as Nelson, Wellington, and Tauranga. These lights can often be recorded by cameras even when they can’t be seen with the naked eye.
One photographer, Belle, was able to capture some stunning shots of the Southern Lights from Springston, south of Christchurch, shortly before 3 am on Saturday. She was up early for an airport trip. Her children, who are six and four years old, enjoyed seeing the colorful lights through the phone’s camera.
Another photographer, Nick Keizerwaard, watched the display from Lake Henry in Te Anau. He said, “I don’t think anyone was expecting it to pop off as big as it did. You could see early in the evening that there was a fair bit of power and colors visible by the naked eye; but things really spiked around 1.30 am.”
Nick added that learning to photograph the Aurora is challenging, as you have to constantly adjust your camera settings to capture the fast-moving target.
Emma Jenkinson also managed to capture the geomagnetic lights early on Saturday. She took her shots at 2.30 am in Halfmoon Bay on Rakiura – Stewart Island.
The US Space Weather Prediction Centre has posted that while more geomagnetic activity was expected overnight into Sunday, it was only expected to reach G1 – not high enough for aurora hunters to get excited.
