CLEAR WITH A CHANCE OF METEOR SHOWERS

SKIES across Tasmania lit up on Monday night as an atmospheric storm washed over the state, bringing with it a surprise light show.

Mr Qiang Hu is a landscape photographer who dabbles in night photography and dancing auroras and was lucky enough to capture the a meteor shooting across the aurora-lit night sky.

After checking the conditions Mr Hu said he decided to head out to the Pinnacle Observation Shelter at Mt Wellington/kunanyi.

“Around 11.30pm a light struck across and then I realised that was the meteor that burned across,” he said.

Melissa de Wit, a photographer who has been taking photos of solar events for the last 12 months and said she set out to get a snap of the aurora around 11pm, when a meteor flashed across the sky.

“There was a little bright flash, like it almost. banged off at the end,” she said.

The intergalactic green and purple sky in her image was taken on Nile Rd, Evandale.

While the light show may have taken some by surprise star gazers like Tasmanian astronomer Shevill Mathers have been watching the event for days with the arrival of the Germinids meteor shower in mid December. He said there would still be the odd meteor display for several nights.

“There are several regular annual meteor showers every year as we pass through the various comet’s/ asteroid’s debris tails,” he said.

“Some are better than others and the meteors can have distinctive features depending on the material being burnt up in our atmosphere. The colours vary, some are slower moving, some leave a smoky trail and even some can be heard, in some we see huge fireballs, spectacular.”