Sunrise on 8th February 2017 - A view from Thornberry Estate in Letterkenny

The sunrise (One of the most photographed celestial event along with Sunset) on 8th February 2017 was spectacular, the red and yellow sky gave a warm welcome even though the temperature was around zero with frost all over the ground.

Moon, Venus and Mars Conjunction over Cathedral of St. Eunan and St. Columba - Letterkenny

The three celestial objects - Moon, Venus and Mars showcased a spectacular shown on the evening sky of 31st January 2017. Venus was high enough from the horizon to be clearly spotted by anyone looking towards the West for the past couple of months, similar alignment occurred during the past two similar phase of moon in the last two months. I was delighted to capture the previous alignment which happened around the start of this year and the photos were posted here => http://deepugeorge.blogspot.ie/2017/01/moon-venus-conjunction-2017-jan-2ndmoo.html

The last alignment during the first week of this year made almost the Syzygy arrangement (a word used to denote the  straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system), with Venus and Mars on either side of the crescent moon.

This time, the alignment pictured a smiley face in the sky, Venus positioned towards 2-O-Clock direction and Mars positioned to near 12-O-Clock direction relative to the crescent moon.

Northern lights view from Horn Head on the night of 2017 January 31

January 31st turned out to be a double bonus day for astrophotography enthusiasts, by evening the Moon-Venus-Mars conjunction decorated the evening sky. After a few clicks of the beautiful alignment of the three celestial bodies in the Western part of the sky, I headed towards Horn Head Peninsula - a very good location to watch for Aurora Borealis in Ireland. The night turned out to be fruitful with mostly clear skies and without high wind, more importantly, the atmosphere humidity and temperature of around 2 to 3 degree Celsius did not do dew up the lens. I missed a very good spell of the dancing lights by the time I reached the location (around 9:15 pm Irish time), I met another guy on top of the cliff, who had already photographed a few beautiful snaps by then. In the next two to three hours I kept on clicking until the Aurora almost disappeared from the sky, and I was lucky to create an 18 second’s time lapse video that covered around 2 hours of Aurora. For the first time in my life, the Aurora was bright enough to be clearly seen by the naked eyes. When I reached back home at 03:00 am on Feb 1st, I was so eager to transfer the images to the pc and view them. The images turned up to be satisfactory, so I managed to do the final processing and time lapse video creation as well as publishing the contents to this blog and face book before I went to (I am going to :) ) sleep. 

Time-Lapse Video

Letterkenny on a Cloudy Evening

The clouds dramatically imitated the crepuscular sun rays, the cloud lines appeared to be radiating away from a distant thunder cloud that made the evening so chilly on the winter evening of 27th January 2017

Crepuscular rays over Lough Finn - A view from Fintown

From wikipedia: The lough, along with its neighbouring village of Fintown in County Dongeal, was named after a mythological woman, Finngeal, who drowned in the lake after attempting to save her wounded brother Feargamhain

Donegal recorded freezing weather on 21st January 2017. The frost that formed overnight was not completely melted way from north facing slopes and law lying grounds even when this picture was clicked  (around 4:00 pm in the evening).  The sky remained mostly clear throughout the day time, but few clouds formed over these mountains by then. I felt so glad to reach this location at that time, the crepuscular rays appeared and decorated the mountain just after a few clicks, the rays disappeared within the next couple of minutes as the high wind made the clouds cover the sunshine.

Sunrise in Letterkenny - 21st January 2017

On this frosty day when the temperature was at zero degree, the rise was at 8:37 am local time, but the sun was not high enough to be seen for another 10 minutes, the grounds and grass were covered in frost, it was foggy when I went to bed the previous day, and never thought that it would clear up in the morning. The contrails marked comet like streaks around the sun and added to the beauty of most photographed celestial event.

Moon Venus Conjunction - 2017 Jan 2nd

Moon, Venus and Mars over Polestar roundabout in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Moon and Venus over the silhouette of a tree

Moon and Venus over the silhouette of a tree in the evening sky

Moon and Venus on the previous day (Jan 1st 2017) when the moon lit side of Moon was pointing away from Venus

Happy New Year 2017 - A foggy and frosty winter morning view of Letterkenny

- 

On a foggy and frosty winter morning (2016 November 24th) the sunrise was so pleasant, the sun rose up on top of the distant mountains that peaked out of the fog layer which covered up the low lying areas of Letterkenny 

Sunset View from Lisnennan Court on 29th December 2016

Sunset View from Lisnennan Court on 29th December 2016

Wonderful Twilight Sky - Dawn of 2016 December 20

The dawn of 2016 December 20 - a day before the winter solstice of the year - turned out to be astoundingly beautiful. The Lenticular clouds along with other type of clouds which I am not expert to classify was astounding, around 7:30 am, the faint dark cloud designs in the sky hinted me that it is going to be wonderful if it stays till sunrise which was about to happen at 8:54 am local time in Letterkenny. In the next 90 minutes, the sky literally turned out to be a wonderful canvas ever changing its color from dark grey clouds to wonderful red/yellow/pink and blue designs. I was so happy that I could capture most of it from a couple my favorite sunrise locations. Here are a few of them, the panoramas are stitched from around 10 to 20 images.

Final Supermoon in 2016 and Cathedral of St. Eunan and St Columba

Third and Final Supermoon in 2016 and Cathedral of St. Eunan and St Columba

Final Supermoon of the sequel appeared on 14th December 2016, the previous full moon was the biggest of the three.  Luckily the sky cleared up by 5:00 pm in the evening after continuous dark and cloudy spells for the last four or five days.

Cathedral of St. Eunan and St Columba on a Foggy Night

 Cathedral of St. Eunan and St Columba on a Foggy Night

Christmas Tree Zoom Burst

Zoom Burst Experiment - I

Zoom Burst Experiment - II

Zoom Burst Experiment - III

Autumn Sky - Letterkenny

Autumn Sky - Letterkenny

Portsalon Beach

World-renowned Portsalon Beach which was deemed to be the second most beautiful beach in the world

Portsalon beach situated in the North-North-West of Ireland (Donegal) in 'Lough Swilly - a glacial fjord or sea inlet' is deemed as the best beach in Ireland