Photographers in Otago have captured stunning photos of an early morning aurora that splashed colours across the sky.
When news that solar activity reached aurora enthusiasts, they waited with bated breath for the alert that an aurora would be taking place.
Knowing that it would be coming in a few days, photographer Cathy O’Neill started to prepare.
Then, in the early hours of this morning, the alert came through, and O’Neill - along with photographers across the region - made their way out to remote areas to try and snap the perfect picture.
“It’s all about waiting for things to be perfect,” she told 1News.
“For an aurora to be seen, multiple things have to come together - there can’t be any clouds, the moon can't be too bright, and the solar winds have to hit just right.”
O’Neill made her way out to Hoopers Inlet near Dunedin at 3am, waiting for the signs that an aurora was happening.
“What a lot of people don’t know is you can’t see these colours with the naked eye.”
“We see in black and white, so it almost looks like someone shining spotlights into the night sky.”
Setting her camera up on a tripod and setting it to long exposure, she sat and waited for the photos to come back.
“It’s really relaxing just sitting there, looking at the light, listening to the birds - and hoping a seal isn’t coming up the beach.”
When the photos came back, they revealed the stunning nature of the aurora - with shades of pink, purple and blue spilling out across the night sky.
“I was like a kid in a candy shop,” O’Neill said.
She said that capturing photos like the ones she did is all about luck and knowing what you’re doing.
“A lot of new people are put off when they realise you can’t see all the colours, but if you have the right setting on your camera, you can get some amazing pictures.
Just south of Jacks Point in Queenstown, Daniel Phillips captured some equally stunning photos.
He woke up at 2am for a drink of water, checking the Spaceweatherlive app “out of curiosity”.
“It showed that just over an hour prior, an unexpected geomagnetic storm had arrived at Earth, causing low-level storming.
“Personally, this was the best display I've seen since the end of April. there's been one or two since, but the local weather was less than favourable.”
Wellington resident Frank Hopfler also made sure to get up early in the morning and check what the solar weather was up to.
“I saw that it was going to kick off, and I made my way into town,” he said.
“I made my way to Ōwhiro Bay, on the south coast, and sure enough, 4am came, and I started to see some aurora activity.”
He said that when the photos came back, he saw them on the back of the camera: “It’s very exciting.”
“You can see very vibrant colours and start to see them moving in the distance.”
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