{"id":236806,"date":"2025-10-24T05:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236806\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T05:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:20:11","slug":"rare-timelapse-of-red-sprites-and-the-southern-milky-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236806\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare timelapse of red sprites and the southern Milky Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch a timelapse of red sprites<\/a> and the southern Milky Way<\/a> from New Zealand in this rare video from Dan Zafra of Capture the Atlas<\/a>. Dan took this video on October 11, 2025. As the Milky Way is setting, you\u2019ll see the sprites \u2013 brief red flashes \u2013 forking high over the mountain. Read more about his amazing night below.<\/p>\n

Rare timelapse of red sprites and the southern Milky Way<\/p>\n

You may recall Dan Zafra<\/a> as the organizer behind the incredibly beautiful annual photography contests for Capture the Atlas<\/a>. Capture the Atlas provides tours and educational resources for all photography levels to improve their skills while exploring far flung destinations. We published the best Milky Way photos<\/a> of 2025 in May. And the best northern lights photo gallery<\/a> comes out every December. On October 23, 2025, Dan emailed me with a new timelapse and images from New Zealand. He had captured what he said might be the first-ever:<\/p>\n

\u2026 timelapse showing red sprites with the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way in the same frame.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a beauty! See the video in the player above and see more images below.<\/p>\n

So what are red sprites<\/a>? These astonishingly fleeting electrical discharges fork above lightning storms. But while the storms occur down in the layer of atmosphere closest to Earth known as the troposphere<\/a>, the red sprites are higher up in the mesosphere<\/a>. They\u2019re so fast they\u2019re measured in milliseconds. But they\u2019re also big. They can stretch to more than 30 miles (48 km) across.<\/p>\n

What follows is more of that incredible night in Dan\u2019s own words.<\/p>\n

Dan\u2019s trip to New Zealand<\/p>\n

Dan wrote: <\/p>\n

Last Saturday, while photographing under the dark skies of New Zealand with my colleagues Jose Luis Cantabrana and Tom Rae, I experienced one of the most extraordinary nights of my life. From the Clay Cliffs in the South Island, I captured something I had only dreamed of: red sprites flashing above the Milky Way. According to what I\u2019ve found so far, there are no previously registered images or timelapses showing red sprites and the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way together, which makes this moment even more special.<\/p>\n

And we had some glow from the Aurora Australis plus a little comet called SWAN<\/a> that was visible when zooming in the images near the galactic core.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeFrom left to right: Jose Luis Cantabrana, Dan Zafra of Capture the Atlas<\/a> and Tom Rae. Used with permission.
\nThe night of the capture<\/p>\n

Dan continued:<\/p>\n

On the night of October 11, 2025, I was shooting under perfectly clear skies when I began to notice faint flashes on the horizon from a distant thunderstorm over the Southern Alps. At first, they looked like normal lightning. But after a few test shots, I realized my camera was capturing red sprites.<\/p>\n

Red sprites are brief, large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorms, reaching altitudes of up to 90 kilometers [55 miles]. They\u2019re almost impossible to see with the unaided eye and last just a few milliseconds. Even storm chasers who spend their lives chasing lightning in places like Oklahoma or Texas can go years without witnessing one. To see them here in New Zealand, where major lightning storms are rare, was something truly remarkable.<\/p>\n

What made it even more magical was how everything aligned; the sprites were happening right beside the setting galactic core. In the same frame, I could see the Milky Way glowing above the horizon while these enormous red tendrils of light danced above a storm hundreds of kilometers away. It was one of those moments when you know you\u2019re witnessing something you\u2019ll probably never see again.<\/p>\n

\"AOn October 11, 2025, Dan Zafra of Capture the Atlas<\/a> caught this scene in New Zealand. In it, we can see the southern Milky Way, red sprites from a distant storm, and a reddish glow (left) from the aurora australis. Used with permission.
\nThe capture and equipment<\/p>\n

Dan shared the details of his capture:<\/p>\n

Location: Clay Cliffs, South Island, New Zealand
\nDate\/Time: October 11, 2025; 11:00 PM local time
\nCamera: Sony A7III
\nLens: Sony GM 24mm f\/1.4
\nSky Exposure: 10 seconds, f\/1.4, ISO 6400
\nForeground Exposure: 2 minutes, f\/1.4, ISO 6400
\nProcessing: Minimal contrast and noise adjustments; blended the foreground for clarity, with no stacking or star-tracking<\/p>\n

The resulting image shows the sprites stretching into the upper atmosphere with the Milky Way perfectly aligned \u2026 a scene that felt almost surreal through the viewfinder.<\/p>\n

I also created a timelapse video that shows these sprites flashing in real time. Since they last only a fraction of a second, the video captures just how sudden and powerful they are.<\/p>\n

Seeing them move across the sky was mesmerizing. The video adds another layer of perspective, revealing how these short-lived bursts of energy connect Earth\u2019s atmosphere with space in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

\"AA detailed look at some of the sprites that Dan Zafra of Capture the Atlas<\/a> caught in New Zealand on October 11, 2025. The sprites on the left have a vague appearance of a phoenix. Used with permission.
\nRed sprites are a rare phenomenon<\/p>\n

Dan wrote:<\/p>\n

Red sprites are among the rarest and least-understood natural light phenomena. They were first recorded on camera in 1989, and only a few photographers around the world have captured them in high detail. They occur above powerful thunderstorms when positive lightning discharges reach the ionosphere. Capturing them requires a mix of perfect conditions, patience and a lot of luck, all of which happened that night in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

To my knowledge, this is the first time red sprites have ever been documented together with the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way and the aurora australis. For me, this image bridges the gap between atmospheric and astrophotography, showing how fleeting weather events and timeless cosmic structures can align in the same frame. It\u2019s moments like these that remind me why I spend so many nights under the stars.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never forget the adrenaline rush of seeing those first frames appear on my camera, realizing what I had captured. I felt incredibly lucky to be there: in the right place, at the right time and ready for it.<\/p>\n

\"LookingDan Zafra of Capture the Atlas<\/a> imaged this beautiful scene with Lake Tekapo, New Zealand, in the foreground and the aurora australis and Milky Way behind. Used with permission.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Dan Zafra of Capture the Atlas shared a rare timelapse of red sprites \u2013 a fleeting phenomenon above lightning storms \u2013 and the southern Milky Way. See it here!<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt
\n View Articles<\/a><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch a timelapse of red sprites and the southern Milky Way from New Zealand in this rare video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285,37194],"class_list":{"0":"post-236806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-todays-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}