Incredible Southern Lights display captured in time lapse video

An amateur photographer from Melbourne captured this amazing footage of the Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, with a time lapse camera last month.

Philip Dubbin told the Herald Sun: “I headed out with some mates and we only planned to be out until 11pm, but I decided to stay out because it was so good.

“I was pretty tired, got a bit of sleep in the car, which is pretty comfy but it doesn’t make up for a real bed.”

Like its northern hemisphere-equivalent, the Aurora Borealis, the Southern Lights are caused by plasma particles from the sun, part of the solar wind, which enter the atmosphere.

Collisions between the electrically charged particles and Earth's magnetic field ionize oxygen and nitrogen atoms, releasing colourful light.

The Aurora Australis can be seen from areas of Australia,  New Zealand, Antarctica, Chile, and Argentina. However, predicting when the lights are going to appear is no simple task.

“It’s almost impossible," said Mr Dubbin. "Space weather and aurora forecasting makes a weather forecaster look perfect.

“They can see when the holes and solar flares come out from the sun, but because the sun’s 150 million miles away, it’s forecasting done by computer predictions and what they think the wind will do.

“What you see with the naked eye depends on where you are — usually, it’s a really bright glow, without colour in it.

“You can see pillars of light moving from east to west, but the colours only come out with the longer exposure in your camera."

Light shows