Follow the dancing lights

摘要

IT WAS STEVE LEE who alerted me to it. He is head of the night assistants at the giant Anglo-Australian Telescope in north-western New South Wales. From a vantage point high on the outside walkway of the dome, he has a panoramic view of the horizon. Very few things elude this expert sky-watcher."I think there's an aurora developing," he told me over the phone. "Better get out and have a look."And that's exacdy what I did, after pulling on a jacket to stave off the chill of the winter's night. But it was one thing for Steve to see the first hints of an auroral display from his mountain-top viewpoint, and quite another for me, from my home 20kmaway, on the edge of the small bush township of Coonabarabran.The problem wasn't urban light pollution - the dark skies around Siding Spring Observatory are protected by legislation — but geography. Coonabarabran's location in the north of the state means that any auroral activity is only visible on the far southern horizon. And, inconveniently, my house was on the north-facing slope of a hill. I hopped over the back fence and headed up the hill.