Gisborne Aurora - October 10th 2024

On Friday October 10th I had been keeping a close eye on Aurora forecast following a large geomagnetic storm. Having seen the crazy images being captured across NZ from the night before by my fellow peers, I knew something was brewing. Locally, it wasn't looking great with overcast skies all afternoon, but as the sun set the clouds began to clear so I shot out for a look.

Having missed a big one earlier in the year I wasn't going to miss this. The moment I arrived the skies were glowing pink - and without much time to assume position I began shooting right away. The Aurora was visible to the naked eye and the clouds had parted just enough to allow for an epic spectacle to the South. The moon was shining at about 50% providing plenty of light (probably too much) - making the scene look a bit like daylight.

This was the biggest one I've personally experienced and the thing that blew me away was how quickly the beams move. I was lucky to capture a few of the bigger pulses, probably shooting for 20-30 minutes before it quickly faded out. I rolled a time-lapse for the next hour or so but not much really happened - so I made the decision to head home assuming the show was over. It turned out that a much bigger light show arrived about 90 minutes after I had left - yes there are lessons in that. All things considered I was pretty stoked!

Over the last few years had been trying to capture these things with varying degrees of luck. During March 2024, on a cold Autumn night with a brisk Southerly wind blowing I ventured out and captured my first successful image of the dancing lights - also along Wainui Beach. For this image I used a 50mm lens - giving the scene a bit of extra zoom to compensate for how far North I was standing. The clouds quickly set in but I walked away from that evening with two shots I was happy with.

Another occasion was during March of this year. I rose early one morning to see a decent forecast on the website www.spaceweatherlive.com (my go to resource for Auroras). So I was straight out the door and ended up taking a capturing the below image on Midway Beach about an hour before the sun was due to rise. It was a brief encounter that time around but always a great way to start the day.

The one thing I’ve learnt from my brief encounters as an Aurora chaser is that like all things in life - if you don’t go you won’t know. So if you are lucky enough to find the elusive Southern lights performing in front of you, enjoy the moment. because as quickly as arrived they can be gone. Happy hunting! DM.