Above us, the star clouds of Scorpius and Sagittarius gently illuminated the moonless night on August 4. With Connie tugging persistently on her lead, suddenly, my phone started to ping. A plethora of messages informed me that a significant auroral display was beginning.
On such occasions, I usually take Connie home, load the car with cameras, and head off to Hoopers Inlet to luxuriate beneath the glow of the southern lights. But not tonight.
As aurora alerts buzzed, out of the corner of my eye I spotted something otherworldly in the harbour. The scene seemed so out of place that I wondered whether my eyes were playing tricks.
As the tide fell, an extraordinary sight unfolded before me. A constellation of strange electric-blue pulsating light spots appeared on the drying mud at harbour’s edge. It looked like bioluminescence, but the sheer quantity was a first for me in more than 10 years of nocturnal dog walks.
Excited and intrigued by the phenomenon, I rushed home. However, instead of filling my car with cameras and heading off aurora hunting, I grabbed a camera and a tripod. I headed back to the harbour to take photographs of the strange blue lights.
For once, this stargazer came over all Anthony Harris, determined to record something unusual. I set up my camera and carefully adjusted the settings to capture the unique blue light and the stars in the sky.
This week’s accompanying photograph shows the view through a wide-angle lens, which recorded the bioluminescence while also managing to capture the stars in the sky and the awful light pollution on the other side of the harbour.
The weird blue light was created by luminous Nyctiphane krill, which are presently swarming in the harbour. This glowing phenomenon is achieved through a chemical reaction involving a light-emitting molecule called luciferin and an enzyme called luciferase. The process helps the krill evade capture by confusing or deterring would-be predators.
On a night when an aurora illuminated the south, an oceanic constellation of krill proved a beautiful distraction. Our harbour is magnificent!
