![Aurora Australis puts on a spectacular light show at Tessellated Pavement in Southern Tasmania. Picture by Sean O'Riordan Photography Aurora Australis puts on a spectacular light show at Tessellated Pavement in Southern Tasmania. Picture by Sean O'Riordan Photography](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/232629811/4dad69d6-599b-40ec-90c5-168b30a67a6b.jpg/r0_13_5988_3978_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
One of Tasmania's most stunning auroras in recent memory lit up skies across the state overnight.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
One fortunate Irish landscape photographer, Sean O'Riordan, captured Aurora Australis in all its natural glory from Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania.
His shot of Tessellated Pavement was gathering huge attention on social media on Saturday morning.
Mr O'Riordan said he had been monitoring the Aurora forecast and received alerts on his phone that a new storm was coming.
"I was in a campervan and drove to Eaglehawk Neck. When I arrived at about 11 pm, I kept watching the stats.
"It was 3am when the Aurora stats got good, so I went to the beach and started shooting pictures," Mr O'Riordan said.
"I couldn't believe the colours, as I've never seen anything like that before. Usually, you get beams from the sky, but this was a mash of red, purple, yellow, and green. It was insane."
Natural phenomenon
Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, is a unique natural light display that can only be witnessed remotely.
The sun releases coronal mass, which, when it hits the earth, causes geomagnetic storms, creating a multicoloured light show.
The landscape photographer said he didn't use any saturation or colour adjustments and snapped his pictures on a Nikon Z6 camera with a focal length of 14 millimetres and an aperture of f4.
He said his exposure time for the captures was 10 seconds.
"There were only three other people on the beach taking photos on their phones; there weren't any other professional photographers there, which surprised me," he said.
"You could see it [Aurora Australis] with your naked eye, which is a sign that you know it would be a good one."
The photographer mentioned that right now in his homeland of Ireland, they are getting their equivalent of Aurora Australis, which is known as the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights.
Mr O'Riordan is based in the Gold Coast where he runs professional landscape photography workshops.