Chase the ethereal Southern Lights in Tasmania, Australia

Thanks to longer nights during winter in Tasmania, there is a higher chance of catching the aurora australis, also known as the Southern Lights.

- Sarah Stanley

Between May and August, the Australian island-state not only gets colder — with temperatures ranging from 3 to 14 deg C — but also darker earlier, as the sun sets at around 5pm.

Similar to the aurora borealis in the north, the Southern Lights are created when charged solar particles interact with Earth's magnetic field. The result? Ethereal waves of pink, green, yellow and blue dancing across the night sky.

Tasmania's southern location makes it one of the few places in the world where this spectacle can be spotted with some regularity.

"The aurora has this amazing movement and I always say it's like seeing music," says 71-year-old artist and author Margaret Sonnemann. Originally from the United States, she has been living in Australia for about 40 years.