An unexpected Auroral treat
So many people ask us if we’ll be able to see Tahu-nui-a-raki (The Southern Lights) when they are inquiring about our AuthenticAs Starry Nights Tours. Unfortunately, this isn’t the easiest of phenomena to predict, especially a few months in advance.
Just as we have weather on Planet Earth, there exists weather in Space. Whenever we see Tahu-nui-a-raki, it’s the result of space weather interacting with particles within our atmosphere. Pretty cool huh? In the case of Aurora Australis, this space weather is formed by particles ejected from our nearest star, Tama-nui-te-rā - The Sun.
As we constantly check the atmospheric weather in the lead up to all of our tours, we also check the Space Weather conditions. Using a variety of apps and websites to view data collected, then interpreted from satellites between us here on Papatūānuku - Planet Earth, as well as checking various Aurora focused Facebook groups, we do our best to work with any possible Auroral activity.
Just like atmospheric weather predictions, they are just that, predictions not guarantees. So now and again we get a wee surprise. Friday evening with Jakob & Taryn was one of those nights.
Aurora Australis - Queenstown NZ - 14th October 2022
As we’ve moved from takurua (winter) into kõaka (spring), we’ve noticed a considerable change in atmospheric conditions, mostly due to the increased temperatures. There’s more mist in Wai Tāhuna Whakatipu wai Māori (The Wakatipu Basin). The excess light from the town highlights this amazingly well. At first it did just look like there was some mist forming at lower altitudes.
Often when we witness Tahu-nui-a-raki with our naked eyes we only see a light grey illumination of the sky, very similar to mist illuminated by excess artificial light. So it’s really easy to mistake and potentially miss. That being said, when jets of that white mist start shooting from the horizon many times higher than the mauka (mountains) surrounding us, then that’s one very large hint that Tahu-nui-a-raki is paying us a visit.
Usually we show our manuhiri (visitors) around the night sky in the first part of the tour, then we move onto photographs. Friday was a perfect example of how we jiggle our tours around to suit conditions. Simon pretty much stopped in his tracks when he saw the first burst skyward and promptly switched all focus to setting up the camera and taking a test shot.
Wowsers. What appeared on the back of the camera went beyond any expectations and was welcomed with open arms. The telescope was moved back near the truck and we set off to shoot some photographs.
As we interpreted the data from the satellites, which tells us information about the particles that will collide with our atmosphere in the next hour or so, it seemed that the main show was certainly going to be earlier rather than later. Absolutely perfect. After shooting some incredible portraits and a panorama, the camera was set up to record a timelapse of the storm, as we continued our tour the Southern Night Sky, making most of our telescope and binoculars.
“Simon was an absolute treat to do this tour with. Both my partner and I had been looking to do some star-gazing while he was down in Queenstown as he’s never been able to see the sky clearly without light pollution.
Not only did Simon absolutely hit it on the head with taking us to an absolute breathtaking location, he was able to clearly run us through everything in the night sky and explain everything in simple way while also keeping you interested with little tidbits and facts that you wouldn’t be able to get from anyone who wasn’t clearly passionate about what they do. You can really tell that there’s clear passion behind this and it’s not just a money grab like a lot of other tours out there. I feel like Simon and Emma have really out-done themselves with this whole tour package and the professionalism that they apply to it as well makes it well worth the price-packet.
I’m positive that when we plan any tour’s in the future we’ll be reaching out too them to organize it as we could not be happier with the service (and photo’s might I add!) that we received. If you’re going to do any tour at all while you’re in Queenstown, do this one!”
