I was lucky enough to manage to see a very impressive aurora from Hobart in march 2023, and some minor red glow from melbourne in April 2023. I had been keeping an eye on the sun and its activity, hoping for a better show for melbourne and May 2024 delivered. It was a cold Saturday night and melbourne had some cloud, but as it stated to get dark, we could see the aurora glow from our suburban home. After dinner we jumped in the car and headed south to Mentone beach, not the best location, but it did provide a clear south view and the cliff gave us a bit local light pollution. And what a magical display it was, we stayed for around 1hr, with the storm producing an impressive naked eye display for around 15mins. What an evening, what a display!

On 8 May 2024, a solar active region which had been assigned the NOAA region number 13664 (AR3664) produced an X1.0-class and multiple M-class solar flares and launched several coronal mass ejections(CMEs) toward Earth. On 9 May, the active region produced an X2.25- and X1.12-class flare each associated with a full-halo CME. On 10 May, the region produced an X3.98-class flare, and on 11 May it produced another X-class flare of magnitude 5.4–5.7 with another asymmetrical full-halo CME. The region also caused an S1 solar radiation storm with spikes reaching S2. On 14 May, as the most active region 3664 rotated beyond the sun’s western limb, the strongest flare occurred, an X8.7, causing level R3 (strong) radio blackouts.