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A new year of sky action has begun...
| 2025 began in great style with a G4 geomagnetic storm and SARS arc on New Year's Day followed by a sublime Venus-Moon conjunction then a week long cold spell which brought numerous snow showers and severe frosts. I spent three days on the hunt for Winter photo opps covering convective cells with snow curtains to frozen lakes, however it was January 9th which stood out as exceptional with freezing fog and -7C temps. We encountered beautiful hoar frost scenes in Omagh with trees covered in frost so thick it took on the appearance of snow. Frost covered everything and with blue skies and sunshine we obtained our finest images of the season. The chase converged on Gortin Glen Forest and lakes at sunset where I completed filming of Chronicles Of The Sperrins for the BBC which was a perfect end to the day. Two page report with 39 images and 1 video clip. - PAGE 1, PAGE 2. |  |
| During the pre-dawn hours of March 14th 2025 the moon would experience a total lunar eclipse with maximum eclipse taking place at or shortly after moonset making for interesting viewing conditions. Expecting to deal with cloud I woke at 5am to a perfect clear sky which amazingly stayed clear for the entire event. Ten minutes later the first umbral bite appeared on the lunar disk and the eclipse was under way. I watched the event from my front garden among a light frost in almost perfect conditions. As the eclipse advanced the moon took on a thick crescent phase with a dark red umbral shadow weakly illuminating the lunar mare. The view in binoculars was beautiful with the red moon against a deep blue morning twilight complimented by the dawn chorus which made for a very pleasant observing session. One page report with 7 images and 1 video clip. - REPORT. |  |
Martin McKenna
