Ballarat residents have been out capturing one of the most powerful, and beautiful geomagnetic storms in about 20 years.
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Residents posted their pictures of aurora australis to social media, and even to The Courier following the spectacular display on Saturday night.
Ballarat Observatory manager Judith Bailey said the green, red and yellow colours seen in many of the photos are a result of huge bursts energy ejected from the sun reaching the earth's atmosphere.
"It's a bit like a neon light when you pass electricity through it - it just glows," she said.
"The energy from the sun raises the energy of the particles in the atmosphere and they start glowing. Oxygen is green, hydrogen is red, sulphur is yellow and you get all sorts of reactions in the atmosphere."
Learmonth Resident Fon Ryan captured the display in all of its glory about 9.30pm on Saturday.
The image was shot near his property looking south over Lake Learmonth towards Ballarat.
"I was out there for an hour ... (the picture) was a 30 second exposure," he said.
On Saturday morning the Bureau of Meteorology issued a "G5 geomagnetic storm warning", and for good reason.
Geomagnetic storms have the potential to disrupt all types of critical infrastructure such as power grids, satellites, communications and GPS, navigation and radios.
"(It is) fantastic to watch it, but the implications for humanity could be quite different," Ms Bailey said.
"Because we have so much technology up in space now, we're very dependent on space. And a blast like that from the sun can disrupt it quite dramatically."
The aurora is expected to return on Sunday evening.
Did you take photos of the aurora australis? Send them to cos@thecourier.com.au to be added to our gallery.
