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Updated February 3rd 2011
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A brief update for now. I will be away over the weekend and won't be back until early next week so there will be no updates until then. I have been busy working on the site and with images so I've managed to get caught up on things which I was behind on. I have completed the Rainbow & Moonbow Gallery (except two images) and the new Aurora Gallery. I have also been adding new and old images to my Flickr Page with various subject matter such as storm clouds, funnel clouds, rainbows, gorse fires, me, my dog, macro photography so a mix of everything really. Above is one such image taken last April during a local storm chase in Maghera with Conor and Declan showing the anvil and flanking region of a multicell thunderstorm with rotation.
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Here are a few new images, these where taken during a recent storm chase to the coast at Ballintoy again. This is cold air convection over the sea in the form of towering cumulus clouds with precip cores of rain and hail. White Park Bay beach is far below.
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Approaching dusk with a cell sporting an anvil blown down-range by wind shear, this one arrived off the coast of Donegal and moved SE towards the N coast, it looked quite dramatic against the darkening sky. This is the same place where I took the aurora images from.
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Stunning scenery between Ballintoy and White Park Bay beach. The low sun cast these Jurassic-age rocks in golden light which contrasted beautifully with the crisp blue sky aloft. White convection can be seen dropping hail curtains across the ocean. See you next week when I hope the sky will be alot busier again however in the meantime enjoy the stunning moon and planets after sunset with dazzling Venus and Jupiter in the dark blue dusk sky.
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*An image report from last year which I'm only getting completed now - July 6th 2011 turned out to be a day of unexpected surprises. After the first half of the day spent chasing around the Atlantic coast in search of funnel clouds and thunderstorms I returned home during the late afternoon with nothing to show for the chase except another wasted fuel payment. On the way home I spotted several isolated cells over my home town of Maghera and within min's of arriving at my house I spotted the first of four funnel clouds within a 35 min period rotating over the Maghera-Glenshane Pass area associated with sudden multicell storm development which made the day a success. One page report with 8 images. - REPORT.
I would like to thank all my readers for the wonderful emails sent in regarding the recent aurora activity and for the feed back on the images which has been overwhelming to say the least!. I have tried my best to reply to each and every email although I still have a few more to go through so if you haven't got a reply yet please be patient and I will get back to you as soon as possible. I have added the recent images to my Aurora Gallery. I have been busy since that aurora and have been out and about doing photography and on the hunt for interesting phenomena so here are a few of the latest. You can also see these and more on my Flickr page.
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January 26th at the Antrim coast storm chasing for lightning, a cluster of cells where located over the sea to the W of Donegal with very active c-g lightning sporting NE motion so at the drop of a hat I raced to the coast to intercept them with the hope of seeing electrified cells crossing the ocean from in front of me. I got there to be greeted by a stunning dark sky and after a little waiting I saw two bright flashes of lightning to the NW, however they where too far to catch on camera then the activity died so I spent some time taking images of the stars. The above was taken at 02.17 UT half way down the spooky steps leading to the base of of Dunluce Castle while the stars winked softly above. I used a torch to illuminate the castle wall and rails.
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Daylight coast chase on January 26th on the hunt for cold air mass thunderstorms, a convective outlook had forecast isolated convective hail showers and thunderstorms at the coast but also with CAPE inland so there was photographic potential this day. Had a great time but didn't catch any thunderstorms however there where nice hail showers against a gorgeous crisp blue sky. The above cell was catching the low sun near Ballintoy Harbour.
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January 27th brought the finest rainbows I have seen in many months, my Dad and I ended up rainbow 'chasing' in the local area. The above was a stunning primary and secondary bow with awesome purple and pink supernumerary arcs, this image doesn't do it justice at all.
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Same day but well into the chase through the countryside. This other beauty formed directly over the old fairy Ring/Fort outside Maghera while large hail stones bounced off the car roof, you can see the hail streaking through this image. The cluster of trees to the RHS marks the location of the ring fort.
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January 27th on Glenshane Pass checking out the high elevation snow on the Sperrin Mountains. This was another good 'chase' with my Dad, we where looking for snow scenes however the afternoon sun melted the majority of it which had looked much more impressive during the morning hours, however photo opps where still present.
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On January 19th 2012 sunspot 1401 unleashed a strong solar flare and large CME which was heading directly towards Earth. This report documents two nights of aurora chasing with my girlfriend to the Co. Antrim coast hunting for the aurora borealis. The 48 hour watch was a success with auroras observed on both nights, however the night of Jan 22nd produced the best show of the weekend with a vivid green aurora display glowing over the sea which we watched from the famous coastline at Ballintoy Harbour. One page report with 9 images. - REPORT.
MUST SEE - ''This is real time footage of the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, filmed using a Sony PMW-F3 camera on the night of the 24/25th of January 2012. The motion in the Aurora is real time, this is what we saw and witnessed when we watched the Northern Lights from our base camp at Ravnastua, Norway. I run tours to photograph and video the Aurora every year. This was one of the best displays I have ever seen. It was the result of a CME, a release of charged particles from the sun that collided with the earths magnetic field and created a glowing ring of light around the North and South poles. The next couple of years should see more of these incredible Aurora as we approach the peak of the 11 year solar cycle''...by Alister Chapman.
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Astronomy is not the only subject I'm interested in. One other such area is severe weather which will be playing a major role on nightskyhunter from now on along side my other astronomical pursuits. Check out my new Storm Image section and read the reports and images. This area will become extensive in the future. As always I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks for your time.
Martin McKenna
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