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The northern lights are spectacular this year, but the strongest are still to come

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The northern lights have hit headlines lately as solar flares have sent charged plasma hurtling through space at break-neck speeds. We’ve had reports of aurora being visible at seriously low latitudes, including Luxembourg. There’s a reason for this, and any nighttime photographers need to know what’s going on.

I’ve written a book about the northern lights. It’s a huge passion of mine and I’ve made it my mission to educate myself on nature’s greatest light show as much as I possibly can. I was lucky enough to have spent the past winter travelling throughout the Arctic in my van. I witnessed the aurora on an almost nightly basis and enhanced my knowledge through research and observation. While I love to dive into the science and the technicalities, I’ll spare you those details in favour of the more exciting stuff.

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French astronaut captures stunning images of Southern Lights from the International Space Station

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Usually, when it comes to bright lights in the night sky, all we hear about from photographers is “Aurora Borealis!”, also known as the Northern Lights. But there are also the Southern Lights, which goes by the name Aurora Australis. They’re much less photographed because most photographers live in the northern hemisphere and they’re generally much easier to see. But from the ISS, there are great views of both.

French astronaut and aerospace engineer Thomas Pesquet managed to grab these images from aboard the International Space Station that shows a breathtaking sight. And it seems to be a somewhat rare event that shows the normally green Southern Lights with red & purple fringes turn more towards blue.

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Astronaut captures incredible photos of blue Aurora Australis from space

Other than being an astronaut and the first French commander of the International Space Station, Thomas Pesquet is a darn good photographer, too. Photos from space are remarkable on their own, but Thomas has been happy to capture some… well, even more remarkable sights. And this time, it’s blue Aurora Australis or the southern lights. Definitely not something you see every day.

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The dunes are a newly discovered kind of aurora – and we have unseen photos

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The Northern Lights are on many people’s bucket lists. The celestial phenomenon occurs in the upper levels of our atmosphere. We’ve long sought explanations for these beautiful lights, and extensive research has come up with many answers. We thought we had it all covered until something strange happened. Recently, in Finland, a scientist discovered a new type of Aurora.

Each Aurora we see has a classification, it makes it easier to describe. For example,  these ripples and waves of light got a cool-sounding label like ‘corona’, which describes an Aurora straight above us. The one that appears as if it’s falling straight down. This new observation, labelled ‘dunes,’ was discovered by citizen-scientist Pirjo Koski and her team in Finland.

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This incredible timelapse shows Aurora Australis and Milky Way over the South Pole

The Aurora Australis and the Milky Way are each incredible to observe and shoot on their own. But when they are both in the same frame, it’s an awe-inspiring sight. They can be seen together in the night sky in the South Pole, and Martin Heck recently released this incredible timelapse showing this inspiring sight.

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Photographing Aurora – Reality vs Expectation

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We just had a beautiful Aurora Australis hit New Zealand a couple of days ago. I was fortunate enough to catch a quiet spot to myself where I could take in the atmosphere and shoot a few images.  My favourite from the night was a panorama shot of the Aurora to the south and the galactic core rising to the south east – it was the shot I planned and it seemed to turn out nicely [check out this blogpost if you want to learn how to stitch astro panoramas]. So nicely, it got published in the National newspaper and got me a fair bit of attention on my various social media sites.  The frenzy that started with a few keen astronomers and astrophotographers led to a lot of people rushing to similar spots the night after to see if they can watch the aurora. Unfortunately, there were a few disappointed folk who not only couldn’t find a clear view, but also didn’t realise what you see in photos isn’t what you see with the naked eye.

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This couple spend their cold winter nights in New Zealand photographing the amazing night sky

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There are few things on this earth more appealing to landscape photographers than New Zealand, the Milky Way, and Auroras. So, when I came across the work of Jake and Jo featuring all three, I had to find out more. Jake and Jo are South of Home Photography, based in Queenstown, New Zealand. Last winter, they travelled the country photographing the night sky in some of New Zealand’s most beautiful locations.

They captured meteors, the Aurora Australis (“Southern Lights”), zodiacal light, air glow, stars, and the milky way as backdrop to some of the most spectacular landscapes you’ve ever seen. We got in touch with them to get some insight into their work. What impressed me the most is how far they’ve come in photography in such a very short space of time.

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