The year 2024 has certainly blessed us with plenty of opportunity to photograph the Northern Lights or aurora borealis here in Ireland.

Last night's amazing display coincided with my visit to a calm west of Ireland lake, photographing throughout the evening in different directions to make the most of the ever-changing celestial light show that is the aurora.

I wasn't in one of the dark sky locations, so I did have some light pollution at times, but the peacefulness of photographing the natural dance of colours across the sky with reflections recorded below.

Now, we can't predict the aurora very well here in Ireland but a typical photography workshop with me here at Panoramic Ireland can see you photographing such scenes.

To find out more, send me a message.

It has been a late night here at Panoramic Ireland HQ (a field on the edge of Ireland) as the full moon, supermoon, harvest moon combo was partially eclipsed by Earth's shadow at 03:44 this morning.

Still processing images in the quiet of the cold night but here is the first from this fine celestial event, that saw clear skies across much of Ireland.

A small portion of the top of the Moon was cast into shadow as it moved partly into Earth's shadow.

There will be a total lunar eclipse visible from Ireland in March 2025.

Why not join me then, or between now and then for some astrophotography adventures in Ireland.

May 2024 saw some of the finest displays of the aurora borealis or Northern Lights over Ireland and lower latitudes ever witnessed.

After a long and busy day photographing in Dublin, word was coming in from all sources of an amazing light show and even in the city I could see and photograph the stronger portions of the celestial display.

But it wasn't until I headed far from the city, into the Irish countryside that I was able to truly enjoy and photograph the unpredictable lightshow.

Still I didn't manage to make to some of my favourite locations over on the west coast of Ireland where the night sky is darker, thus more suited to astrophotography and night sky events.

It doesn't take much to see the difference, in Dublin and other large conurbations only the brightest stars are visible, in the countryside the sky can be so dark that it seems like you are staring into, literally, the vast reaches of the Milky Way and beyond.

I was reading recently of a ranking that lists the best locations for astrophotography in Europe and, interestingly, eight out the top ten sites were in Ireland!

Travel booking site, Omio analysed over 1,400 locations in Europe using factors such as clear views to the southern horizon, light pollution and the Bortle Scale that measures the astronomical observability of celestial objects.

Ballinskelligs in County Kerry ranks at number one, followed by Ashleam in County Mayo.

So what are you waiting for, now is the time to get to Ireland, use Omio to book your travel here and why not book a photography workshop with Panoramic Ireland when you're in Ireland.

With recent cloudy overnight weather it has been difficult to find an opportunity to get out and photograph Comet NEOWISE or C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE).

The celestial body is now heading away from Earth and is fading, soon to disappear.

So with a good evening sky and a forecast for clear skies I headed into the mountains.

Photographing clouds and other scenes as I waited for the sky to darken, I was greeted about an hour after sunset with more and more cloud. Thickening all the while, I eventually lost sight of any open sky.

As midnight approached, sunset was at 21:40 - I descended out of the mountains really with the intention of heading on, to abandon hope of photographing the comet.

But as the altitude changed, so did my view of the sky - I could finally see some stars and the Plough became visible in the northern sky.

I knew that NEOWISE would be close to the Plough and sure enough when I found a quiet crossroads in the Irish countryside I finally had a view of the whole sky.

Surprised that I could just see it with the unaided eye, I quickly set about photographing the comet, first with a wideangle lens then with a longer lens.

It burns a fine green at the moment, having been a red colour last week.

And that might be the last time I have the opportunity to search for and photograph NEOWISE as the forecast for night skies over Ireland for the rest of July aren't wonderful. But, with the patience of a photographer I will have at least another attempt.

Join Panoramic Ireland on a photography workshop or photo tour in Ireland.

The lunar eclipse of January 2019, often called a Super Blood Wolf Moon or variations to that effect - still scientifically called a lunar eclipse - as seen from Ireland.

This lunar eclipse will be the last full eclipse to be seen from Ireland until 2033, there will be partial eclipses but not full.

Since at least 36AD when Chinese astronomers first noted the annual light show that is the Perseid meteor shower, people have been watching the spectacular night sky in August each year.

Earth passes through the dust and debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle as it travels through our solar system on its 133-year orbit around the sun. As the small particles enter Earth's atmosphere they burn up approximately 80km above the surface of our planet. In doing so they create bright, colourful streaks across the sky. If it is night time and if the moon isn't bright like this year then the Perseids are a wonderful sight.

March 20th 2015 #eclipse2015

Much patience was needed to get a view of the near-total solar eclipse visible over Ireland today.

I had already planned my location and was ready to go with equipment prepared, camera batteries charged, memory card formatted and the correct lenses and filters. I also had a plan of what style of shot I wanted to get.