Aurora Australis: Where, how, what time to see & capture rare southern lights across WA skies on Friday

A rare phenomenon is set to light up WA’s skies in ethereal shades of violet, teal and electric green on Friday, with residents set to witness the Aurora Australis.

According to The Bureau of Meteorology’s space weather forecasting centre, a geomagnetic storm has set the stage for potential Southern Lights displays across large parts of Australia – including Western Australia’s southern fringe.

The Aurora Australis is caused when a cloud of charged solar material produced by the sun travels towards Earth.

While it doesn’t necessarily cause the sky to turn a different colour entirely it does result in a faint glow visible on the horizon, with stronger geomagnetic activity able to project more obvious greens, pinks and purples colours across the skies.

Astronomer Matt Woods explained to PerthNow that it was rare for the natural phenomenon to be seen in 2026.

“The sun has an 11-year cycle and it’s a lot more active at the end of that cycle which was around 2024–25,” he began.

“Now that we’re at the beginning of the cycle we should expect to see less activity, making auroras less common.”

Whether a seasoned aurora chaser or just hoping to catch your very first cosmic light show, this arrival of the New Moon means there will be pitch-black night skies and zero moonlight pollution competing with the faint atmospheric glow.

The aurora can’t be seen during the day, so even if the geomagnetic storm arrives earlier in the day, you’ll need to wait between 75 to 90 minutes after sunset.

Based on sunset times for October 9, that’s approximately 6:23pm AWST in Perth.

Hopeful observers should keep in mind that auroras don’t glow constantly but instead roll through in bursts that last between 10 to 15 minutes each throughout the night.

Mr Woods continued: “It does have to be a decent-sized storm for us to be able to see it, and usually here in Perth, you have to get away from the city lights, so you’ll need to go out to the central Wheatbelt or down past Mandurah to be able to see it.

“Esperance and Albany will be the best places to see it in WA tonight.

“But as I always say – auroras, meteor showers and comets are all like cats — only they know what they’ll do. Persistence is the key.”