Capturing Mawson's night sky
Just one week before leaving Hobart I gave in to my inner battle and purchased a brand-new digital camera. Did I need to…no. Am I glad I did…you bet! I bought two lenses with it - one to take long range shots of wildlife and the other was to “hopefully” capture a few images of an aurora or two. I had never considered myself a photographer and had, up until this point, planned on taking photos with my iPhone alone. But I justified the purchase to myself with the idea that If there was ever an opportunity to try my hand at photography, then this was it. Plus...I’m a sucker for new toys!
Fast forward a few weeks and we had all embarked on the Nuyina heading through the sea ice on our way to our new home at Mawson Station, I came out of my cabin to find everyone rushing about in a buzz, grabbing cameras and gear and heading out to see the first aurora of the trip. We hadn’t even arrived yet! But sure enough there it was, beautiful ribbons of green dancing through the sky above us. This was the first aurora I had ever seen and I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Since we have arrived at station, Mawson's night sky has continued to impress us all with its captivating auroras of greens and reds but also impressive moonscapes, milky ways and more stars than you could imagine. I have had so many opportunities to get out and try out my new camera and I have tried to take advantage of every one of them. Some nights however, when its blowing 30+knots of wind, it's still pretty bloody cool to be lying in bed and watching the aurora dance outside the window.
As we come out of winter the days are getting longer and longer and we are all enjoying the warmth of the sun once again. However, there is still a part of me that’s a little disappointed that the opportunities to see those amazing night skies will be pretty limited moving forward, and we eventually get back on that ship to head home.
Here’s just a few shots selected out of the thousands of images I have enjoyed taking whilst I have been here. I think I’ve now got yet another hobby….
Nick Williams - Station Plumbing team
