Sky and Solar

08/04/2024

While Irish weather and Sun elevation didn't allow visuals of the eclipse, I've taken advantage of my radio astonomy setup. So here is the instrumental recording of this year's eclipse taken in Greystones, Co. Wicklow

19/12/2023

Last night, after series of earthquakes, an eruption has started about 4 km north east of Grindavik. The town infrastructure is not affected and there is no threat to people at present. The below image courtesy of The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service
https://www.ruv.is/english/2023-12-18-eruption-on-reykjanes-peninsula-399922

09/12/2023

Hi Folks, we have printed out our Northern Lights images of December the 5th. The cards will be available at our friend and a talented member of Greystones Art Studio khatuna.gallery stall at this Sunday's Greystones market at the Boatyard!

01/12/2023

The auroral stats are slowly improving, with NOAA forecasted another G3 storm later tonite. Probably worth getting a camera ready. Although the cloud cover is not really willing to play ball.

01/12/2023

For those who are or were awaiting for the Northern Lights - the geomagnetic storm is now in progress. Unfortunatelly for Ireland it has started slowly on Friday morning, after our local sunrise - the US and Canada should get the most of it now!

Aurora Forecast

29/11/2023

The latest NOAA alert - a potential G3 geomagnetic storm is on its way, expected Friday. All the latest alerts are on our live feed here
https://www.skyandsolar.com/noaa

29/11/2023

Due to the large X-class Solar flare flashed out on Tue at 19:11, we are expecting a serious geomagnetic storm to arrive around Thu/Fri. Very approximate timings are in the NOAA forecast table below. Indeed, there could be another good chance for the Northern Lights display in Ireland.
https://www.skyandsolar.com/aurora-forecast

26/11/2023

While many people elsewhere were enjoying last night Aurora, here in Ireland the sky was overcast. The Aurora, although not as strong as on Nov-05 was fairly impressive. Our monitor is still only partially functioning, but even so, the US radio path has demonstrated some well defined ionospheric disturbances (the wavy pattern on the graph, which is normally more flattish at night). Swedish magnetometers were running wild as well.

15/11/2023

Monitoring further the Grindavik situation. NRTF transmitters are still off air and it is not clear when they may come back. Tonight, the eastern part of the town has no electricity, it is currently unknown when power can be restored. NRTF compaund has no electricity either. The parts of the town has no hot water since Sunday. The first image is a web camera shot overlooking Grindavik on Tuesday night, the third shot is after power went off on Wednesday.

13/11/2023

An article about our auroral monitoring source - NRTF Grindavik

Sky and Solar

11/11/2023

While here in Ireland we are safely awaiting for anything auroral, there is a certain drama developing in coastal town of Grindavik, Iceland. The town is hosting Naval Radio Transmitter Facility which is used to communicate with submarine fleet across North Atlantic.

Those high power transmitters are using very large antennas and transmitting on VLF frequencies, which just hapen to be very responsive for auroral ionospheric disturbances' monitoring here in Ireland.

At present the town of Grindavik is being evacuated. See the map and how close the transmitters and the town itself are from the d**e magma intrusion. You can actually see the outskirts of the town on the right side of the photo.

11/11/2023

In case anyone is impatiently awaiting for an aurora tonight there looks to be a slight disappointment! All the indexes are looking very flat at the moment and nothing is hapening right now.
There is still a chance for a geostorm development, however it likely to be fairly late tonight or in the morning.

Grindavik transmitters are still out of action, hope the situation is manageable as there is a serious volcanic hazard currently in place.

At 18:00 today, 11 November, a status meeting concluded between scientists at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the University of Iceland, and the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the latest measurements of seismicity and ground de...

11/11/2023

Due to series of earthquakes in Iceland and in Grindavik in particular, both VLF transmitters we use for auroral monitoring were shutdown just before midnight last night.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1111/1415945-iceland-earthquakes/
https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/a-seismic-swarm-started-north-of-grindavik-last-night

10/11/2023

Folks, there is another chance of the Northern Lights coming this weekend. There is a forecast for G2 geomagnetic storm for Sat/Sun

Also worth to mention, there are people who are sensitive to magnetic storms, so please be cautios over the coming weekend.

08/11/2023

Having the auroral season in full swing we've just published an article on How to photograph the Northern Lights. There is likely nothing new for astrophotographers, but could hopefully be useful for people with less astrophoto experience.

Sky and Solar

07/11/2023

In some way it was an uncertain night. Although forecasts didn't make much hope for an Aurora, geomagnetic field was still fairly disturbed. Indeed, Northern Lights sightings were reported in Scotland and some reports appeared in parts of Ireland. No comparison to the previos night's great show though.
Accordingly, VLF plotter showed some minor, however permanent disturbances all through the night.

06/11/2023

It was a busy night last night with all hands on deck filming, photographying and watching the Lights. Apparently, reports were coming from all over Europe, some reaching as far south as Bulgaria ! It looks like a forecasted impact was quite a bit miscalculated and a major geo hit arrived a day earlier and stronger that was expected.
Nevertheless, here our own images of the Aurora in Greystones, Ireland. Plus our VLF sensors' record, showing the strong impact ionosphere had not only on Icleandic path, but also on the NAA transmitter (red graph) in the US

05/11/2023

Hi Folks, just a heads up - there is another chance to see some Northern Lights tonight! There was a severe geomagnetic storm last nigh with some Aurora sightings in Ireland. Another storm has just hit in the morning and the next is expected tonight.
Although never can be 100% sure if that really comes, when and how strong, our monitoring station can give an idea is it worth to get outside for that at all.

Aurora Forecast