Southern Lights in NZ

[jamesthecarman]

One of my friends back home asked me about seeing the Southern Lights.

Other than this freaky "Moonbow" (night rainbow, but it was huge, and not really coloured) I haven't....I didn't even associate the two until today.

How about you guys? Is it more of an occurance in the South Island?

Here's some links:

http://homepage.mac.com/stevoss/astro/page2/page2.html

www.astronomy.net.nz

[selchie]

I haven't even seen the Northern Lights, even though there have recently been occurrences as far south as we are (41˚ north latitude). Mostly this is because I live in a coastal area where clear skies are rare.

I believe that with moonbows light is refracted through ice crystals high in the atmosphere. Not closely related to aurorae, but another fun atmospheric effect. On our most recent plane flights, I saw sun glories and a subsun with halo, which also have something to do with refraction through ice crystals.