Rodney (Rod) Coysh, Aurora 101 (LANDSCAPE 2025)

It’s winter, the moon phase is right and there is predicted solar activity. You assemble your gear, head off to a dark sky location, rug up and stand in the cold. Someone is blasting light all over the place… You see some colour but then the clouds roll in and it rains. Sigh. You try again the next night, to get the same result…maybe a bit more colour this time. Sigh. “Third times the charm” they say – some cloud, a lot more colour and they turned the lights off. Happy smiles, this is good enough. On the final night in the wee smalls when saner people are asleep, it goes off… A massive aurora that spans 90 degrees of horizon about 40 degrees high, with moving shafts of vertical light beams. You’re no longer cold, tired or sleepy. Just awestruck and humbled.

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