Once in a lifetime Aurora Australis shot taken at Uluru

A travel photographer who was in the Red Centre at the right time has taken a once in lifetime shot – and he originally thought his shot was being corrupted by light pollution.

Travel Photographer Ignacio Palacios captured the Aurora Australis at Uluru on from Sunset Viewpoint.

A Spanish expat – who now resides in Sydney – has found himself at the right place in the right time to snap Aurora Australis at a remarkable location.

Travel photographer Ignacio Palacios was at Sunset viewpoint in Uluru on Saturday night, May 12, and was trying to take shots of the Milky Way when a strange pink glow kept ruining his shot.

It was around 7:30pm and the park was closing, so Mr Palacios asked the rangers if there was any unexpected light pollution around.

They said the only light pollution around would be coming from the recent solar storm and would come in the form of Aurora Australis.

It was only then that it dawned on Mr Palacios that he had captured the southern lights in one of Australia’s most iconic locations.

Travel Photographer Ignacio Palacios.

“I had no idea, I photograph astro a lot so I couldn’t understand why I was getting this pink,” he said.

“I had seen some pictures from some friends in Tasmania, of the Southern lights, but I just never thought in my mind ever that it would ever reach Uluru.”

He said that the Aurora itself was a bit of blur itself when looked at with the naked eye, and that recent advances in camera sensor technology had allowed him to pic it up.

Mr Palacios said he was currently working on a book documenting Uluru and the Red Centre.

He said he was only lacking a photograph of a waterfall at Uluru and then it would be completed.

When questioned if his image of Uluru would be the front cover, he remained coy.

“It could be,” he said with a laugh.