Video made from 1001 photos ( Canon 450D, 11mm Tokina f2.8 lens, ISO 1600, 8 second exposures). Photos taken from 10:03pm on 20 January through to 12:51am on 21 January 2026.

Video made from 1137 photos ( Canon 450D, 11mm Tokina f2.8 lens, ISO 1600, 8 second exposures). Quite a subdued aurora, but the green was visible to the naked eye for most of the night, and the pinks could be seen from time to time. Photos taken from 9:36pm on 12 November through to 12:48am on 13 November 2025.

The clouds got in the way of what would have been a fantastic aurora last night at Ricketts Point. At least between 8:17 and 9:12pm there were enough gaps in the cloud for us to see something. There is a good chance of more auroras tonight - but if only the clouds cooperate...

Last night and this morning was fantastic at Ricketts Point!

This is a timelapse of 1800 8 second exposures on my Canon 450D DSLR, at ISO 1600, using a Tokina SD 11-16 F2.8 lens.

Conditions looked a bit dubious early in the evening, but persistence paid off with a spectacular display,

I started imaging at 10:22pm and ended at 3:29am, when the clouds returned. Well worth the windy conditions!

A late check of the aurora apps on my phone convinced me to head to Ricketts Point even though there was a half moon in the sky. I arrived just before dark, and there were already a few people there. More arrived over the next few hours. The strength of the moon played havoc with the view, but there were some periods of time where it was faintly visible to the naked eye. Most of the detail was only on my camera or my phone. This is a 2 hour timelapse, starting at 10pm. Canon 450D DSLR, 8 second exposures, ISO 1600, Tokina SD 11-16 F2.8 lens. Images were enhanced in Affinity Photo 2.

After a non-starter on the evening of 10 October, I went home to sleep for a couple of hours, and went back to Ricketts Point at 3am on Friday 11 October, buoyed by the excellent predictions of a G4 storm. It was definitely worth getting up!
This is a timelapse of the aurora of Friday 11 October 2024, 3:25am - 5:57am, taken with my Canon 450D DSLR. 8 second exposures, ISO 1600, using a Tokina SD 11-16 F2.8 lens. Images were enhanced in Affinity Photo 2, to improve details.

The aurora on Monday 12 August 2024 was great, even with a moon close to 50% full. When I went down to Ricketts Point around 7pm there was a hint of colour, but nothing spectacular. It got much better after 10pm. Green was easily seen, but there were times when red could also be seen with the naked eye. My Canon 450D DSLR camera was taking 8 second exposures at 1600 ISO, using an 11mm F2.8 lens, so it captured far more detail than I could see with the naked eye.

This is a timelapse of 40 minutes of 8 second ISO 1600 exposures, taken at Ricketts Point, Victoria, on a Canon 450D DSLR, starting at 10:04pm on 12 August 2024.

I checked my phone before heading to bed, to see if the aurora had shown up, and yes, it had. So, we headed off to the Red Bluff cliffs and took a number of shots on my Canon 450D and a Tokina F2.8 lens, at ISO 1600. Most images at 10 seconds.  I think that I can safely say that this has ticked viewing a good aurora off my bucket list. In fact, it is unlikely that I will see the like of this again, as this aurora is among the top 20 Great Storms of the past 500 years (see the spaceweather.com article from 17 May 2024).

Aurora Australis, from Sandringham, Victoria, Australia, 10pm Saturday 11 May. First time in 50 years that I've seen the aurora, and it was even better than these images  when we were walking down to the beach!

At 12:30am on May 12th I thought I would head to the park across the road from our home in Sandringham, Victoria, to see it the aurora was still active. It certainly was!

Canon 450D, Tokina F2.8 lens, ISO 1600. First three images at 2 seconds, the remaining images at 10 seconds.