With Solar Cycle 25 currently in its peak, there’s no better time than now to try your luck at hunting the elusive Aurora Australis (Southern Lights).
Aurora Tracks owner Pentikäinen shares her trip plans for visiting Tasmania Australia this July 2024 to hunt the aurora, with a full breakdown of her itinerary and how she calculated the best time of year and location to visit, to help you plan your own aurora-chasing trip.
What is the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights)?
For those of you unfamiliar with the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis), these are the equivalent of the Northern Lights, except in the southern hemisphere. While the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) centre around the north pole, likewise the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) centre around the south pole.
The visual phenomenon is the same, however, sighting the Southern Lights is a much more difficult feat than the Northern Lights for one main reason: landmass. As we’ve discussed in other articles, the aurora occurs around the poles, at a latitude of 66.5°N and 66.5°S or higher.
Around the north pole there is quite a lot of accessible land, including Alaska, Scandinavia and Russia. As a result, entering into the north pole and places of high latitude (°N) is relatively easy for transport, accommodation etc.
Conversely the south pole is mostly occupied by inhospitable Antarctica and oceans, which means that accessing a high enough latitude (that is, proximity to the south pole) to see the aurora reliably is extremely challenging.
The closest hospitable landmasses for seeing the Aurora Australis are Tasmania in Australia, New Zealand and Patagonia (Argentina and Chile). Yet, even the southernmost points of these three countries are still further away from the south pole than ideal for reliable aurora-spotting.
The ideal aurora hunting latitude is 66.5°S or higher. Meanwhile, the southernmost points of these countries are quite low in relation to this:
- Australia, Tasmania, Huon Valley: 43.6°S
- New Zealand, Stewart Island / Rakiura: 47.2°S
- Chile, Hornos Island: 55.9°S
Data Source: Google Maps.

What does this mean for Aurora Australis hunters?
Basically, it means you’re going to have a difficult time planning to see the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis), because you won’t be able to fulfil one of those essential requirements for aurora-hunting which is close proximity to the pole.
Therefore, much of our aurora-chasing is going to depend upon luck. And, to improve our luck, we need to try our best to line up all of the other parameters perfectly.
These parameters (key factors) include:
- Year: Choosing a year that coincides with the Solar Cycle peak, because this directly correlates with greater frequency and intensity of the aurora.
- Time of Year: Choosing the darkest time of year, in mid-winter.
- Light Pollution: Avoiding sources of light pollution including cities and full moon.
- Duration: Planning a trip for a longer duration (eg one week or more).
- Time of Night: Be prepared to stay up late to do your aurora-hunting.
At these lower latitudes, the most important thing is to get the timing right, in particular visiting around a solar cycle peak year. It is mostly during the solar cycle peaks that aurora sightings have been spotted at lower latitudes.
Key Factors for Aurora Australis
Time of Year | May to October Preferably Winter, near the Solstice (around the shortest day) |
Best Years | Solar Cycle 25 peak years: 2024, 2025, 2026 |
Time of Night | Midnight to 3am |
Moon Cycle | New Moon / Dark Moon |
Locations | Southernmost regions of: Tasmania, Australia New Zealand Argentina & Chile Antarctica (Cruise) |
How I Planned My Next Aurora Australis Hunt
Now, I will admit that I have never actively gone Aurora Australis hunting before, but I feel I have learnt enough and understand the phenomenon enough now to confidently plan for it. Below is a breakdown of my upcoming trip to chase the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights) in Tasmania Australia.
My Itinerary
Here is my itinerary, with obvious identifying details removed for privacy reasons.
Dates | 4 July to 11 July 2024 |
Location | Southport, Tasmania, Australia |
Stay Duration | 1 week (7 nights) |
Accommodation Features | I chose this particular rental because aside from being good value for money and comfortably accommodating my family, the house is elevated and has a large south-facing deck with unobstructed views over the water. |
Next, I’ll explain how I came to settle on these Aurora Australis trip dates and location.
Time of Year
Since 2024 is in the Solar Cycle peak, choosing the right year to travel for me was simple – do it now. Choosing the time of year required more work, however.
What I am looking for here is a day as close to the Southern Hemisphere Winter Solstice as possible, simply because the Solstice marks the shortest day of the year. The shortest day means the most darkness hours, and darkness is required to spot the aurora effectively. A couple of weeks before or after the solstice will not make much difference in the length of the day (about 15 minutes), so as long as we get a date that falls roughly within a 6 week period around the Winter Solstice we should be sweet.
The Winter Solstice in Australia is Friday 21 June 2024. So, with that logic, the best date range should be:
Friday 31 May to Friday 12 July
That is, 3 weeks before and 3 weeks after the Winter Solstice, respectively.
Data Source: Hobart sunrise and sunset times (timeanddate.com)
Light Pollution
MOON CYCLE
The moon cycle is important for the Aurora Australis because the moon can cast quite a lot of light into the sky. This is evident when star-gazing, which is much more difficult on a full moon, compared with a dark/new moon when the stars are very vivid.
The light from the full moon creates a sort of washed out effect across the sky, making the stars and auroras less vivid and therefore more difficult to observe; a phenomena we call light pollution. To avoid light pollution, especially with the more subtle aurora australis, it is important to time the trip for the week surrounding a New/Dark Moon.
Data Source: Moon Cycles 2024 – Hobart Tasmania (timeanddate.com)
NEW MOON (PERFECT):
- 6 June 2024 (Perfect)
- 6 July 2024 (Perfect)
FULL MOON (AVOID):
- 22 June 2024 (Avoid)
- 21 July 2024 (Avoid)
AVOIDING CITY LIGHTS
I chose to avoid some popular Aurora Australis destinations in Tasmania because of their proximity to the city of Hobart. Several of these locations are slightly north of Hobart, and because the aurora would appear in the south skies, I wanted to avoid any risk whatsoever of light pollution from Hobart obstructing the view. In saying that, as far as cities go, Hobart is quite small, so the light pollution may have been negligible.
I opted for a more southern location not only to avoid Hobart city, but also so I could get a slightly higher latitude. As for location, both Bruny Island and Southport were equals for me. Both are located at similar latitude and are small towns and villages, meaning they wouldn’t be problematic for light pollution. I settled on Southport because I found accommodation I liked there, but I think Bruny Island would have been equally good.
Accommodation Features
Remember, the aurora will appear in the south skies, so if you can find accommodation with a south-facing aspect that would be a great bonus. Also keep in mind any obstructions in the area, such as tall trees (including forests).
While I say that Bruny Island and Southport were equals on my list, that is not quite true. The thing that actually made Southport the winner for me was its location next to the open water, as opposed to Bruny Island which is natural forest.
I didn’t want to risk finding myself in a situation where the aurora is dancing in the sky, but we couldn’t see it fully because the view was obstructed by a stand of tall trees.

Wrapping Up my Aurora Australis Trip Planning
With all of this factored in, combined with our availability based on school holiday dates and our work commitments, the best dates for a trip to Tasmania to chase the Aurora Australis became:
Thursday 4 July to Thursday 11 July 2024 (7 nights) in Southport, Tasmania
There you have it, my full aurora australis southern lights trip planning laid out in bare view. With all this planned out, I still remind myself that spotting the aurora australis is a game of luck, so I won’t beat myself up if it doesn’t appear. Tasmania has some beautiful bushwalks, and amazing food and wine, so even if the aurora doesn’t appear it will still be a fantastic excuse for a break away 😊
Happy aurora hunting!
Comments. Our articles are not open to comments, however, if you have a correction, question or suggestion concerning this article, please Contact Us directly.