Solar eclipse March 20th 2015

Good turnout at Belfast zoo this morning, and we were very lucky with the weather, as the clouds stayed away until just before 9.30. But even then, the clouds were pretty thin, and the eclipse could be seen very clearly.

It became noticably darker and colder in the few minutes leading up to 9.30, and a lot of people were remarking on this fact.

I reckon there were around 150 in all present. There is a photo on this link (not a very good one mind you) but hopefully Jonathan may be able to post some later.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-31982261

Here was the view from Ballina, Co Mayo. Despite the drizzle, I managed to encourage a few work colleagues to come outside. At 9.30am, right at the maximum ,we got a small break in the clouds to see the suns cresent..

www.flickr.com/photos/7703127@N07/16249385154/

Here is the team ,looking a bit wet

www.flickr.com/photos/7703127@N07/16845876746/in/photostream/

In Galway there were two watches , one at the Quad in NUI Galway hosted by the NUIG AstroSoc which was very successful.

Galway Astronomy held theirs at Salthill, we were very lucky with clear skies over Galway Bay prevailing for most of the Eclipse including the maximum, we guessed over 200 turned up and everyone went away happy, I on the other hand watched the event from work but through low cloud, we have photos at www.facebook.com/galwayastronomyclub .

Thanks


Ronan Newman

Got a good view from my the office window of City-Gate in Mahon, Cork.

Our Chairman, Phil, has compiled a report for our Home page

www.eaas.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_...s-a-events&Itemid=12

We had an excellent day for it and all of our four sites saw something of the eclipse, though Portballintrae wasn't the best with only short sightings near maximum eclipse. But our main event at QUB with the astronomers from the Astrophysics Research Centre pulled in over 1000 people and we reached another 200 with our outlying locations at Larne, Portballintrae and Scrabo and managed to get slots on BBC Newsline and UTV Live. Pictures, with more still to come here...... gallery.irishastro.org.uk/index.php?/category/33

A wonderful day, and with Tuesday's Aurora, a fabulous week for astronomy!