‘A perfect coincidence’: uncommon pink lightning captured in New Zealand skies | New Zealand

A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured photographs of “red sprites”, or pink lightning, one of many rarest mild phenomena on the planet, by which luminous crimson flashes seem within the sky.

New Zealand photographer Tom Rae and Spanish photographers Dan Zafra and José Cantabrana got down to shoot the Milky Way over the Ōmārama Clay cliffs within the South Island on 11 October, after they chanced upon the extraordinary occasion.

The photographers thought they might be fortunate to get clear skies that night, however their evening was “an unforgettable one”, Rae advised the Guardian.

Cantabrana prompt they may be handled to a show of pink sprites, when he noticed a storm brewing over the horizon, Rae mentioned.

“He was checking his files for a Milky Way panorama and discovered he had captured red sprites,” Rae mentioned. “Dan and I just could not believe it – there was a whole bunch of screaming and shouting and all sorts going on in the dark.”

Red sprites are bursts {of electrical} power within the higher ambiance, generated by thunderstorms. Unlike lightning that shoots in the direction of the bottom, pink sprites shoot upwards in the direction of the higher ambiance, creating types that seem like columns, carrots and even jellyfish. The first {photograph} of a pink sprite was taken – by accident – in 1989, by a workforce on the University of Minnesota.

They are so transient – lasting only a millisecond – that they’re not often seen to the bare eye, however Rae received fortunate. “I happened to be looking directly at one when it happened – just a perfect coincidence looking at the right part of the sky and I saw a brief red flash,” he mentioned.

Witnessing the phenomena was a dream for Rae, an award-winning evening scape photographer. “It looks like you’re seeing something that is not real, it’s very ethereal … it’s this very deep red colour that is there for a split second, so it’s really interesting to see.”

Capturing a pink sprite requires a mastery of technical pictures, in addition to an understanding of science and artistic flare, Rae mentioned. “It’s a really involved type of photography that’s very rewarding as well.”

Zafra mentioned it was one of many “most extraordinary nights” of his life. “I could see the Milky Way glowing above the horizon while these enormous red tendrils of light danced above a storm hundreds of kilometres away,” Zafra mentioned.

To his data, there aren’t any different photographs exhibiting pink sprites and the southern hemisphere Milky Way in a single body.

“It was one of those moments when you know you’re witnessing something you’ll probably never see again.”