Orange Setting Moon, 2340 19^th July 2026.


An extremely deep orange setting Moon (and it really was that orange to the eye, caused by wildfire-smoke in the atmosphere filtering/scattering out the blue end of the spectrum) taken 23:34 on 19^th July 2026. Unusual because it's rare here to see any celestial object all the way down to the horizon without serious almospheric attenuation. Also lucky to see it set into the sea, rather than the land which occupies most of my horizon-vista. Looking West over Sherkin Island, with the Jolly Roger pub and the former Sherkin Hotel brightly lit.

This second picture, taken 8 or so minutes later, shows the now highly-distorted Moon partially set into the sea-horizon. At this point, geometrically, the Moon (its centre-point) is in fact 1 full degree below the horizon. Lunar diameter being around 1 degree, it should be invisible. But atmospheric refraction allows it to appear an estimated 0.3 degrees above the horizon. This is why precise observable setting-times for celestial objects cannot ever be truly accurate.
Both taken from Ballylynch (Magnus Burbanks).
Canon EOS 7Dmk2 + EF 300mm F/2.8L. 6 seconds at f/4.0 ISO 1600.

Lunar Eclipse, about half an hour from totality, 6:00am 14^th March 2025.
There was plenty of cloud around which completely obscured it thereafter. The classic Total Lunar Eclipse photo shows a full deep-orange disc. But this is possibly more interesting: it captures all the elements in a single image: Earth's shadow, separating the more-illuminated region in the Penumbra and the dimmer part within the full Umbra (the dimmer part illuminated by sunlight diffracted ("bent") around Earth); and a hint of the orange colour starting to appear as the return light from lower part has more of the blue filtered out by Earth's thicker-lower-down atmosphere. This is a single image (i.e. not a composite) and not re-touched.
Taken from Ballylynch (Magnus Burbanks).
Canon EOS 7Dmk2 + EF 400mm F/2.8L + 1.4x converter.

The fully naked-eye Aurora Borealis, 10^th October 2024, from Ballylynch (Magnus Burbanks)
(compare to those taken the previous year, shown below - no comparison!)

Partial Lunar Eclipse from Ballylynch, 28^th October 2023. (Magnus Burbanks)

Two versions of an Aurora Borealis image, taken 2:40am 13th Sep 2023 from Ballylynch (Magnus Burbanks).
Vertical columns were shifting constantly.


colour-adjusted to be truly as seen by the naked eye
i.e. streetlights yellow (Cones activated), but the sky in grey-hues (Rods only)

"as seen" by the camera, for which Rods & Cones are not a "thing".

The Milky Way from Ballylynch, August 2023. (Magnus Burbanks)