South Canterbury photographers chase night sky phenomenon
Geoff Cloake has been chasing “the greatest show on earth’’ for 21 years, and says it is usually a fairly solitary task.
However, Saturday night was anything but, as he joined thousands throughout the country setting up cameras and finding vantage points, to capture billions of tons of plasma – known as coronal mass ejections – exploding from the surface of the Sun towards Earth.
Aurora Australis lit up the sky across the country on Saturday night and South Canterbury was no different, with people keen to get outside and capture the rare geomagnetic storm.
One of those was Cloake, a long-time aurora chaser who dedicated seven-anda-half hours of his Saturday evening to capturing the phenomenon in the middle of nowhere, which he said was one of the best auroras he had ever seen.
He was also excited to have captured the aurora looking northward, which he said was unusual.
“And with such brightness,’’ he said. “The aurora band had expanded up from the southern sky travelling completely overhead. I was expecting this and that’s why I chose to go to Waitohi Bush Reserve for its 360-degree view,’’ he said.
Cloake, whose images of the night sky were part of a Matariki exhibition at Timaru’s Aigantighe Art Gallery in 2020, had been taking images of auroras for more than two decades after becoming interested in the phenomenon.
“Back then people were going out to all sorts of locations,’’ he said.
He spoke to former superintendent of the Mt John Observatory above Lake Takapō/Tekapo, Alan Gilmore, in 2003 about the fact they were noticing more auroras in the sky.
“He was regularly ringing me to tell me when one was going to be happening.’’
Looking at satellite data, they worked out when they were likely to be able to capture them, to the point that Cloake said he was ringing people to tell them to get their cameras out, while standing in a paddock waiting for the sky to change colour.
“We were emailing and ringing and it got to the point where there was five of us, we thought ‘why don’t we start a Facebook page?’’’
That page, Aurora Australis, had a following of about 100,000 people, and over the past few weeks, as interest grew, it gained more than 25,000 new members, Cloake said.
Cloake said he usually went aurora hunting with his wife Marthy, and on Saturday evening they were joined by his daughter Roselyn and her husband, and their granddaughters, making the moment even more special.
“2005 was the last time I saw it like this. “That time Rose joined me in a paddock to watch, and her and I were gazing overhead.
“So on Saturday night, here we are with her kids and we made a whole evening of it. We didn’t want to miss anything.’’
Cloake said because of the popularity of the event in the sky, “camper van after camper van’’ drove into the reserve on the night.
“It made it a very sociable occasion. “I won’t deny - it was great standing around sharing stories.’’
He described the feeling of looking up and seeing the lights as “eerie’’.
While Cloake did not want to discourage anyone from looking for aurora, he said it was important people remembered such occasions were rare, and it was important not to ruin it for others.
“It’s wonderful people are taking an interest in the environment and it’s great thing to do with a family, but people must be considerate of others.’’
This included not causing light pollution with vehicle headlights or torches, he said. “It can be extraordinary.
“This is the greatest show on earth and we can all partake in it. It’s such a feeling of awe and the energy involved is beyond comprehension.’’
Mackenzie photographer George Empson remembered seeing his first aurora at Lake Takapō/Tekapo as a 10-yearold in the late 1950s.
“I saw and watched in awe an aurora,’’ Empson said.
“My bedroom was aglow with this mysterious light, kneeling on my bed and elbows on the windowsill.
“It was an exceptional sight, just like the one on Saturday night, the light wavered at one stage and danced all over the sky, rising to an amazing height - a stairway to heaven.’’
While there had been others since, Empson said every now and then there was an exceptional event.
It could be a moving experience, being out in a very dark area alone, he said.
“Looking at this light and the vastness of the universe that it is lighting up can be emotional, it makes one think how small we humans are compared to this.’’
And one thing that quickly brought him back down to earth was rabbit holes.
“It is a wake-up call when one steps into one in the pitch dark.’’
Meanwhile, Timaru hobby astronomer and science buff Roger Fagg was out with his camera, capturing photos of the Sun on Sunday morning, showing sunspots on the surface.
“There are two photos [I took] of a particularly large area containing some 43 sunspots in the lower right corner,’’ Fagg said.
The Sun was 1.39 million kilometres in diameter, and its surface temperature was about 6000C, while sunspots were a mere 4000C, making them look dark, Fagg said.
“The Sun is approaching its maximum 11-year solar cycle, thus an increase in sunspot activity.’’
He said the photographs were taken with a Skywatcher Solarquest 70mm F 500mm telescope designed with filters to look at the sun and a 40mm eyepiece.
“The camera was a cellphone attached to the eyepiece ISO:50 S: 1/250s to 1/500s.’’
He said it was important to note that people should not try to capture images of the Sun without the correct equipment, “as they will not only damage their camera but will seriously damage their eyes’’.