{"id":598264,"date":"2026-08-19T16:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/598264\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T16:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:50:19","slug":"moon-throws-shade-across-westmeath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/598264\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon throws shade across Westmeath"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John Nooney hosted an event for the eclipse at Clonkill Observatory.<\/p>\n

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Image 1 of 8
\n John Nooney hosted an event for the eclipse at Clonkill Observatory.<\/p>\n

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Image 2 of 8
\n John Nooney of Clonkill Observatory projected an image of the eclipse to a screen, so visitors could see it safely.<\/p>\n

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Image 3 of 8
\n John Root sent in this photo with this note: \u2018Padraig Killduff brought along his four-inch refracting telescope to give a safe image on a white board. The photos include one of maximum coverage of the sun with a camera filter (see above right).\u2019<\/p>\n

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Image 4 of 8
\n John Root sent in this photo, taken at Lough Ennell.<\/p>\n

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Image 5 of 8
\n By Karen Cunningham from Rochfortbridge; she didn\u2019t realise the bird was in the photo till she looked at if afterwards.<\/p>\n

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Image 6 of 8
\n Sandra Griffith viewed the eclipse using a colander.<\/p>\n

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Image 7 of 8
\n By Julieann McCormack Cahill.<\/p>\n

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Image 8 of 8
\n This is how Adrian Dunne viewed the eclipse.<\/p>\n

\n Published:
\n Wed 19 Aug 2026, 4:00 PM\n <\/p>\n

John Nooney of Clonkill Observatory doesn\u2019t do as many public events as he once did, but he decided he couldn\u2019t miss the solar eclipse last week, and opened up to guests so they could observe it safely and enjoy the benefit of his years of experience.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s main interest is telescopes and building them, more than the spin-off from using them, he told the Westmeath Examiner. He started building his observatory in 1968, and he has run it as an \u201ceducational facility to help inform people of matters pertaining to all space related activities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last week, John wanted to do something for the eclipse and posted a notice at the end of his drive so locals could call in on the evening. \u201cI had a setup in the yard, a telescope, and fortunately I have that equipment. I showed a projected image of the sun on a screen as it was happening, and we also had goggles because looking at the sun is very dangerous \u2013 you have to emphasise that you could do harm so you have to protect your eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted for all the people that came in, and especially the young people \u2013 the questions they ask, you know, it\u2019s something that everybody\u2019s interested in, but especially the younger people, because they wouldn\u2019t have seen anything like that before. It was a totally new experience for them but they were well versed in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our readers have posted some brilliant photos on the Westmeath Examiner Facebook page, and this is just a selection.<\/p>\n

\n Published:
\n Wed 19 Aug 2026, 4:00 PM\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Nooney hosted an event for the eclipse at Clonkill Observatory. Previous Next Image 1 of 8 John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-598264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}