The Southern Lights

Last night I caught my first glimpse of the Aurora Australis: the southern lights. For me, seeing the aurora was one of the main attractions of a winter down here, and judging by last night's taster, I'm not going to be disappointed...

This strange greenish glow appeared in an arc over the crescent moon, in the southern sky. Then it got brighter, and started to shed streaks of light this way and that. At one point, there was a spiral of colour, snaking its way up form the horizon, leaving bright green pillars of light briefly behind it as it meandered across the sky. The whole light show only lasted about 20 mins, but I came back in from the -25 degrees outside with a big grin spread right across my face.