Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.The spectacular aurora also known as the Southern Lights, caused by a solar storm that impacted the Earth on 10 and 11 May, was seen and captured across the southern hemisphere, including in southern Africa in places such as Gansbaai and in Namibia.
Dr Ruhann Steyn and master’s degree student Calmay Lee decided to focus the telescopes on where the activity was as part of a demonstration to prospective students and their parents. “Although AR 3664 has now moved out of sight, it is still producing large solar flares,” says Dr Steyn. “The particles collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere, emitting light with a particular colour, depending on whether it collided with either an oxygen or a nitrogen atom,” explains Dr Steyn.