Aurora Australis - Southern Lights, 1 June 2025 Our Norfolk Island Magical Dark Skies

Last week I was excited to take my first photograph of the Southern Lights on Sunday 1 June 2025. I drove up Mt Pitt during the evening, just before 10pm, set up my camera, enjoying the starry night above and also watching the moon set. My camera picked up the Southern Lights red glow, low on the horizon, looking south towards Phillip Island.

I drove to Kingston and even though it was very dark, the Aurora Australis Southern Lights were not visible by eye, but showed up on my Canon camera. I joined local photographer, Jolene Oliver, at the Kingston Pier, the lighter boat and down at Emily Bay. The stars were stunning, as the milky way look bright above, and I was pleased to also capture images of our Norfolk Island Magical Dark Skies.

The Auroara Australis were enjoyed across areas of New Zealand and Australia. My app recorded the KP Index as 7.33, which is high. I think May 2024 reached 8 or 9, which was extremely high, and the dancing lights were stunning.

I followed many online links sharing images of this week’s Southern Lights, which included the South Island and North Island of New Zealand, and the stunning

lights were recorded visible to the naked eye from parts of the ACT, NSW, VIC, SA and TAS. In the Northern Hemisphere, solar storms delighted many with beautiful Northern Lights or Borealis Aurora. This was the largest solar storm since May 2024, and those with clear skies enjoyed the night sky glowing lights on 1, 2, 3 June 2025. Here on Norfolk Island, we were lucky to have clear skies on Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday the night skies were cloudy, and rain returned.

I have read that the sun is currently at the peak of its 11-year activity cycle when there are more solar storms, aurora and sunspots. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported it had the potential to become a "significant geomagnetic storm".

Facebook Sky Core, 1 June 2025

A giant coronal hole has ripped open across the Sun’s surface and it’s aimed directly at us. This gaping void in the solar atmosphere is unleashing a torrent of high-speed solar wind, expected to hit Earth within days.

While not as violent as solar flares, these streams of charged particles can still rattle our planet’s magnetic field, disrupting satellites, GPS, and communications.

But there’s beauty in the chaos too: people in high-latitude regions may witness dazzling auroras lighting up the night sky. As we are near solar maximum, expect more of these solar breathings moments when Space weather becomes Earth weather.

We are very fortunate that these large solar storms do not happen too often, the earth is protected by the upper atmosphere, but in the past, massive solar storms have damaged power networks and communication systems. When there are eruptions on the sun that are directed at the Earth, solar flares and other solar-mass ejections travel through space can slam into the Earth’s atmosphere and generate powerful electric and magnetic fields. These magnetic storms can occasionally be intensive enough to interfere with the operation of high voltage electricity lines.

In March 1989, for instance, a so-called coronal mass ejection from the sun slammed into Earth. Because of how the planet was oriented when it hit, it blew out power grids and transformers primarily in the Canadian province of Quebec. For the next 12 hours, millions of people were thrown back to a world without any electricity, lights, heating, or other necessary services.

We live in a digital world and the risk of loosing modern communication is high, imagine the effect on the satellites that orbit the world. In September 1859 there was a major Solar Storm, this period of history was when there were only a few telegraph lines in America. Imagine if a massive Solar Storm hit the Earth in the 21st Century, everyone would be shocked when power, phones, computers, banks, and many other parts of your daily life would stop working.

Last year in May 2024, there were also stunning images from the International Space Station as they circled above the earth recording this Aurora event. Designers of the Space Station and other space crafts also have to have safety in mind when they design space crafts to protect the equipment, navigation systems and the astronauts. I also saw photos taken in May 2024, by crew on a Brisbane to Auckland flight. The pilot’s view from the cockpits of planes were stunning, as soon as the flight had taken off the crew said that the aurora was a beautiful sight. Last year in May, local photographer, Jolene Oliver, kindly allowed Norfolk Online News to share her amazing image of the Aurora Southern Lights she had taken at Emily Bay at Kingston, on 11 May 2024. There were even stars in the red sky, it was such a beautiful image, thank you Jolene.

To view amazing images of the June 2025 Auroa Australis Southern Lights check out these Facebook pages, plus, there are many more online sites sharing photographs and information.

Aurora Australis Tasmania | Facebook

New Zealand Aurora Australis Group | Facebook

This week I can proudly share my images if the Aurora Australis captured here on Norfolk Island. Here are a couple of the photographs I took at Kingston of the Southern Lights on 1 June 2025, and also another image taken by Jolene Oliver of me standing next to the lighter boat at Kingston with the red glow out to sea on the horizon.

Now it is winter, the nights are longer, there will be more opportunities to get out and enjoy our Norfolk Island Magical Dark Skies, remember “When it is Dark, Look for Stars”.

Betty Matthews

6 June 2025