LAST weekend, the phenomenon Aurora Australis was in the night sky for Hamilton and southern Australia to see.

Astronomy enthusiast, Roger Bowker said the aurora experienced in Australia and around the globe over the weekend was a result of a series of coronal mass ejections emitted by a very active sunspot region on the sun, resulting in geomagnetic storms on Earth.

“This region, numbered AR3664, is roughly 200,000 kilometres wide, or more than 15 times the diameter of the Earth, and has been quite active over the last week.

“Region AR3664 has been releasing several solar flares of varying intensity each day, which is a process where magnetic field lines on the Sun above a sunspot tangle and erupt, sometimes ejecting fast-moving, highly charged particles.

“This is a normal part of the Sun’s 11-year cycle as it heads towards what is called a “Solar Maximum”, when it exhibits more sunspots and surface activity than normal and is nothing to be concerned about,” he said.

Local photographer, Simone Stevenson said what a magical night it was to not only capture the aurora but to see it lighting the sky with the naked eye.

“(It was) an evening I won’t forget,” she said.

“Great to see so many people out enjoying mother nature at her finest.”

Mr Bowker said the weekend’s aurora was a Kp-9 or a G5 level storm, which is why it was so intense and widely visible throughout most of the southern half of Australia.

 “With a weak aurora, it can often only be seen on camera, with colours only detectable by camera and not to the naked eye,” he said.

“The human eye receives light through cells called cones and rods, where cone cells allow us to see a broad spectrum of colours and the rods being sensitive to light, providing us function in night vision.

 “Because of this, only the very rare G4 and G5 storm conditions may provide aurora that is visible in both light and colour to the naked eye.”