Today I am in the Southern Alps of New Zealand hoping to capture some Aurora Australis photo.

I have been standing-by in the south island for few months now as 2013 has been expected to be one of the most active year for the solar activities in the 11 year sunspot cycle.
But regardless of that expectation, the condition had been very challenging. Not as many sun spots yet and the visibility being poor with bad weather or the moon being too bright every time whenever the auroras became active. A pattern seemed to exist for clouds suddenly appearing when good amount of solar wind occurred. Stormy when there is an extreme amount of solar wind favoring the auroras to become more active but the low pressure from Antarctica hitting hard on the south island.

It has been almost impossible to see any auroras in New Zealand this year so far. But there have been small amounts of windows and reports of aurora being sighted in the southern hemisphere’s limited viewable locations and there had been 3 nights that I had a chance as well.

This photo was taken in St. Kilda Beach in Dunedin in 1st May 2013.
It was just before the moon coming up and the sky getting covered by a overcast of clouds.

I hope there will be more to be captured this year with better luck with weather matching the solar activity.