Opening image: Southern sky doof, in full technicolour. Photo SA Rips

Southern Sky Doof: The Accidental Aurora Australis

“I'm generally out and about every full moon, shooting all night up and down the coast, looking for new angles. But I had no idea this was happening. No idea at all.”

 

South Australian photographer, Hayden Richards recounts stumbling on the Aurora Australis after waking up in the middle of the night at home in Elliston and walking outside to take a leak.

 

“We’re renting in town at the moment, and our daughter Kirra had friends down over the weekend from Roxby Downs, so we gave them our bedroom and me and Fiona were sleeping the night out in the caravan.

 

“Well, I got up for a piss at four in the morning and walked outside and just went... whoa. What the f... is this? The sky was on fire. It was popping off red and green and purple and just moving and flaring. I was just tripping out. There’s never rave parties down on the oval at Ellison, but that’s what I thought was going on. It was so vivid. So, I ran inside and woke Fiona up and said, ‘Am I seeing things here?’ We’re both standing out the back of the caravan, looking up, just speechless, tripping.

For two nights back in April, the southern sky turned into a lava lamp. Photo SA Rips

“So, we drove straight up to the cliff above town near Camel’s place. But I didn’t have the cameras and lenses I wanted because they were all in our bedroom and we didn’t want to wake Kirra up. So, I got a couple of shots that night, but then I found out there was another night. So that next night, I managed to compose myself a bit more and they turned out all right.

“Usually when I’m driving around at night shooting, I never see a single soul, but that night there were cars driving around everywhere. People checking it out. Who knows when the next one is coming?”

The solar storms that create the Aurora Australis work around the sun’s 11-year solar magnetic activity cycle. Occasionally visible from Tasmania, the storms this year were so strong the phenomenon was visible as far north as Queensland.

This story features in the first print edition of Roaring Journals: order your copy here.

Opening image: Southern sky doof, in full technicolour. Photo SA Rips

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