21/01/2026
Last night's promise of an auroral display started out a bit quiet, but ramped up pretty quickly to be quite a beast. Incoming space weather data suggested something big 'could' happen. But cloud cover and terrestrial weather being what it was, it seemed all a bit 'meh'.
Nevertheless fairly late in afternoon, I thought 'Oh well, no harm checking'. It turns out that last nights' aurora was probably bigger than any solar storm I've witnessed here in Canterbury.
Bigger than the last couple of epic events that signalled what we thought was the peak of the current solar cycle. (Sun activity revolves on a 11yr cycle - which we are on the slight downward curve currently of the maximum expected).
Certainly this was one of the few times where large curtains of light filled the width and height of the sky at times, that you could really SEE. (Human vision at night can't replicate the natural colour and accuity able to be captured in camera with longer exposures. That is why photos always look so bright and quite rich). Yet this was actually a visual feast, comparable to displays you might commonly witness in Iceland, Nordic countries, Canada etc...
So having curated some potential spots in advance, I took off without much expectation. Commonly with big displays like this, there are droves of cars, with a plethora of headlights and torches (not exactly conducive to dark sky photography!!). But there was hardly a soul. It seems the expectation of cloud kept many away. Or maybe the storm onset went under the radar. I can't be too sure. It worked out perfectly for photos, and was the latest nights I have had out in years - till 4.30am!!!
Please enjoy some of nature's glory. As we head into the spring equinox in coming months there could well be ongoing activity.
