Tasmania has welcomed the new year with a spectacular display of the Aurora Australis.
The vibrant green and purple lights were visible in the sky across the island from 11:30pm on New Year’s Day to 2am on January 2.
Astronomers had previously been predicting a large Aurora display at some stage over New Year’s due to a large geomagnetic storm forecast.
In Hobart, last night’s Aurora display wrapped right around the south of the city from South Arm to the north side of kunanyi/Mt Wellington.
“When we get a nice big geomagnetic storm the particles can stray further from the poles and we can get northern and southern lights further from the poles,” said Associate Professor Michael Brown from the Monash University’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
Brown says the best viewing spots are along the coast or in areas with minimal light pollution.
“You want to get away from artificial light as much as possible and a clear view to the south is definitely good too.”
“These things could be a little bit fickle. They don’t run to a timetable but one thing that’s quite helpful is there’s Aurora spotting social media pages,” he said.
“Often what I do if I’m heading to bed or I get up early is I’ll check those pages and go, oh they’re spotting Aurora, I’ll pop outside [to] have a look and then if it’s really good pop you know down to somewhere really you know a really nice place to see them.”
