Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be low to moderate with a slight chance for a major event for the next three days (03-05 August). Region 1261 and Region 1263 are both capable of producing a major event and both have a slight chance of producing an energetic proton event.

Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on day one (03 August). Day two is expected to be predominately quiet with chance a for isolated active conditions late in the day. Day three (05 August) is expected to be unsettled to active with a chance for minor storm conditions. The increase in activity is forecast due to the expected arrival of the coronal mass ejection from 02/0616Z. Due to the enhanced environment there is a chance for the 10 MeV protons to cross event thresholds with shock arrival.

Cheers Mark, haven't seen any more displays since then due to all the cloudy weather. I'm in aurora mode now 

Many thanks Mark and Anton

Thanks Mark and Anton, yea the macro on that lens is rubbish but sometimes you can get lucky with the rite subject, cheers

Fantastic images Mark!!, my hat goes off to you for getting such stunning solar imagery - keep up the great work. 

Thanks for the post Andy!!, all we need now is a clear sky, looks like a nice comet with CCD images showing a faint tail, it should brighten a good bit too in the months ahead, good luck all 

Snapped this today using the 400mm lens with baader astro solar filter. On view from L to R are giant sunspots 1263, 1261 and 1260, I could see the first two easily with the protected naked eye. 1216 has produced numerous flares and a CME which is heading towards Earth which will cause aurora displays on the nights ahead. 1263 is massive with X-class flare potential so the sun is a very busy and exciting place at the moment.

Thanks very much Richard, the Canon kit lens has a very bad macro system I have to admit so for these I stepped back a little and zoomed in, then cropped the final result. The Bee then made it back outside to safety so it was a happy ending.

Haven't see any NLCs since July 9th/10th which is shocking, however this is more to do with cloud cover than anything else. The season will soon be ending so fingers crossed for another good one before it's over for another year. The best display of 2011 so far for me was on July 9th/10th, Roisin and I spent the night at the north coast watching it glowing over the sea and the infamous 17th century ruins of Dunluce Castle which made for a fantastic NLC experience. Here's a detailed report on my site with many more images....

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Dunluce%20Castle%20Noctilucent%20Clouds%20-%20July%2010th%202011.html

Cheers Richard, Shelf clouds are among my favourite storm structures. 

Here's a menacing gust front/shelf cloud which Declan and I intercepted on July 7th on the Glenshane Road. In reality this guster was pure black and evil - actually some of the darkest threatening clouds I've ever seen to date however I had to expose the image to show structure rather than brightness so these dont do them justice at all, the precip behind it caused flooding and the lightning knocked out the power in 40,000 homes across N. Ireland. Check out the report on my site for better quality images and more detail on the chase.

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Shelf%20Cloud%20-%20July%207th%202011.html

A few fun macro shots with the 18-55mm lens of a Queen Bee which I captured from Roisin's home last week, the white background is the window sill with bright sunlight shining on it through the conservatory glass.

It was a stunner Brian, saw it from the coast too, best I've seen since 2009, here's a shot of it over Dunluce Castle...

Nice article on sky & telescope about it, predictions are for mag +1.0...still a long way out but I cant help but feel a little excited by this already 

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/123993449.html

There was a slight risk of weak thunderstorms over N. Ireland on Wednesday with 400 CAPE and LIs of -1 in a post frontal slack Wly flow with influences from convergence zones expected however nothing happened at all due to lack of strong lift and a cap/inversion stopping vertical growth of towers so it was a no show with no lightning at all. However during the evening there where a few strong hail showers in E areas but nothing much elsewhere so I had pretty much given up on any photo opps. At 20.00 I was in my bedroom on the internet when I glanced out my window to the E and was pleasantly shocked by a fabulous formation of mid level convection. The elevated cloud mass was lit by a low sun from the W which resulted in dramatic high contrast black and white updraught towers which could be seen billowing upward to a very decent height in the atmosphere, this was shocking since peak CAPE time for Maghera was 15.00 however ground heating, cooling cloud tops and mid level instability all contributed to a brief breaking of the cap unexpectantly during this late period.

What shocked me more was the incredible rotation which my Sister and I watched with utter amazement, almost directly over our home in the form of rapid swirling dark clouds with strong rising inflow motion, it was like watching a mixture of thick dark porridge being stirred by a giant unseen hand, the motion really was rather striking and for the second day in a row I felt the adrenalin pumping and entertained the notion that I could be treated to a dramatic mid level funnel cloud, however despite watching over 5 min's of rotation with wide eyed disbelief I didn't get treated to a vortex however the clouds did try really hard to put on a show. I went out to my backyard and took images as the cell slowly drifted to the E of town, I wish I had taken video footage of the dramatic cloud structures however I couldn't do two things at once so I stayed will digital still images...