Photographers in New Zealand just snapped some crazy looking phenomenon called Red Sprites, or better known as red lightning. These stunning auroral shows glowed across the skies above the Ōmārama Clay cliffs, on the South Island of NZ. These magnificent spectacles include vibrant crimson bolts that illuminate the night sky seemingly from nowhere. It places second on the list of the world’s rarest light phenomena. Red Sprites are fantastic phenomena that thunderstorms produce in the upper atmosphere, stunning electrical bursts of energy. They only persist for milliseconds and are sometimes invisible to the naked eye.
The photographers involved in this remarkable capture, Tom Rae, Dan Zafra, and José Cantabrana, experienced a moment of serendipity while documenting the night sky. Their mission was to shoot the southern hemisphere Milky Way, but what they found was much more incredible. Capturing Red Sprites took more than just technical photography know-how. It took a profoundly collaborative spirit, a willingness to understand atmospheric science at a molecular level, and a good dose of creative flair.
For Tom Rae, award-winning nightscape photographer, the opportunity was too good to resist. In his acceptance, he mentioned that it was a dream of his for capturing Red Sprites. “He was checking his files for a Milky Way panorama and discovered he had captured red sprites,” Rae explained.
We heard from Dan Zafra, who is still incredulous about the first time he witnessed the phenomenon. “It was one of those moments when you know you’re witnessing something you’ll probably never see again,” he remarked. The surprise of their discovery led to an impromptu dance party among the shooters. Rae recalled, “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.”
This is all part of the rarity of Red Sprites, which mystique undoubtedly adds to their appeal. In 1989, a group of researchers at the University of Minnesota inadvertently took the first photograph of this incredible atmospheric phenomenon. This surprising find has led to a new wave of research and scrutiny into these extremely temporary flashes of light. Rae explains that no researchers have previously photographed Red Sprites with the southern hemisphere Milky Way in the same shot. This is an enormous hole in the existing astronomical photography.
Rae described witnessing the event as surreal: “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 went on to articulate the experience further, stating, “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.”
Zafra added to the visual imagery by recounting his view during the event: “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.”