THE SOUTHERN LIGHTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12082, 10 August 1917, Page 4

THE SOUTHERN LIGHTS.

BEAUTIFUL DISPLAY LAST EVENING.

A beautiful display of the Aurora Australia, or Southern Lights, was visible* in Christehureh last night, beginning a, little after .six o'clock, just as darkness had fallen. The aurora was heralded by a beautiful rosy glow directly in the south. It grew, and spread across a el.",ii\ cloudless sky, extending about -lodes towards the zenith. At. ■ first- it looked like the, glare from a distant fire, but there was a more elusive quality in the. shading, which varied from a. deep red to pale pink. If any proof were required that the glow was not reflected in clouds, it was observable that through the deepest shades of red the bright star Cnnopus shonesteadily. The colour waxed and waned very gradually, and seemed to move further into the south-west, and suddenly a very bright) streamer, like a gigantic searchlight, shot across the south-western sky. It faded quickly, and the pink glow was then penetrated by a horizontal bar of steely light, which waxed from a bca.utiful palo green to a light yellow. These effects remained for some time, varied by occasional faint vertical streamers of palo light-. . , The display was the most brilliant seen in Christehureh for some twenty years. Its features were the unbroken ar( . —an unusual condition in this latitude—and a, vivid interrupted, vertical shaft of whilto light that twice appeared high in the south-wosteni sky. Beneath the arc the sky appeared as black as if a heavy bank of fog had risen, though stars shone through. The are itself was white with a red glow above, and the under edge ras, as usual, sharply defined. The red glow was exceptionally pronounced in the early stages and again shortly before seven o'clock, when the aurora attained its greatest brilliance. The display lasted for nearly two hours. The aurora is believed to be duo to electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere. They have been estimated to occur at an average height of from 20 to 30 miles above the earth's, surface, but may occur only a few miles from the .surface in the Polar regions. Displays seen in these, latitudes are invariably accompanied by magnetic storms.

JvTf-ollent views of the display wero obtaXiec 1 at Sumner «and Xow Brighton.