Brian O'Halloran
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playingwithdust.bsky.social
Brian O'Halloran
@playingwithdust.bsky.social
Die hard Cruyffian. Ex astrophysicist. QPR devotee, for my multiple sins. Single parent.
Pinned
Time for a (re) introduction for my new followers! I'm Brian, a fallen astrophysicist living on the Copper Coast in Waterford, Ireland. Most of my feed will be photos of this gorgeous part of the world, plus my astrophotography.

Oh, plus terrible football takes.
Still going, though much diminished #northernlights #speirgorm #ireland #aurora
January 19, 2026 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
As crazy as it sounds, in terms of Dst this is only the 6th strongest geomagnetic storm of solar cycle 25 so far (min -169 nT currently, might go down a bit more). Although it was the fastest and strongest in terms of solar wind magnetic field, the field orientation Bz >0 was actually not favorable!
January 19, 2026 at 10:55 PM
Bright enough to illuminate the road #northernlights #speirgorm
January 19, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Unreal burst of #northernlights
January 19, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Northern lights already visible here in #Waterford #speirgorm #aurora #ireland
January 19, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
#solarstorm update - a strong shock (likely flank hit) has arrived at Earth around 7 PM UT 💥 Real-time solar wind data for plasma temperature/speed at L1 is currently unrealiable, but modeling suggests an arrival speed of about 1000 km/s. Bt is currently around 30 nT, Bz is intermittently negative.
January 19, 2026 at 8:20 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Some faint Northern Lights spotted over Ireland using drone but fog moving in is going to cause issues for some trying to view them. #NorthernLights #Aurora
January 19, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
G4/SEVERE geomagnetic storm conditions have just been observed according to NOAA SWPC.
January 19, 2026 at 7:48 PM
I think we're going to have a big northern lights storm tonight...
January 19, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
The impact from the CME has reached Earth, GOES Mag suddenly finds itself in the magnetosheath as Earth's magnetosphere becomes compressed by the energy of this solar storm. This spike does not indicate a substorm since the satellites are on Earth's dayside now.
January 19, 2026 at 7:25 PM
I think we're going to have a big northern lights storm tonight...
January 19, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
One of the strongest Bt readings of the satellite era > 90 nT... quite the CME impact just now at our upstream satellites! This may just be the start of a long day of geomagnetic storming... get ready!
January 19, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Just for the record, and it’s insane that the mad king made me look this up, there is documentation of the US giving up all claim to Greenland to Denmark when we bought the Virgin Islands from them in 1916.

history.state.gov/historicaldo...
January 19, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
We'rre gonna see a lot of MAGA chud masks slipping over this. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
US reportedly considers granting asylum to Jewish people from UK
Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the Telegraph he discussed refuge for those leaving UK over antisemitism
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
It’s truly a special kind of unhinged psychotic who will come up with “You didn’t give me the Nobel Peace Prize so I’m going to start World War 3.”
January 19, 2026 at 5:46 AM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
The UK Met Office prediction for the X1.9 CME is out, and it looks promising. Impact is in agreeance with NASA's prediction--around Jan 20 at 4 UT. This is Monday night and an optimal arrival time for North American chasers, but all models have uncertainty.
January 19, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
If you are in Seattle, please go patronize this store because this is amazing content/promo 😂 (laughing to keep from crying, and I do kind of low-key want that orange spider plant I have never seen that before)

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DTQrTqZ...
January 17, 2026 at 1:33 AM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
January 18, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
2026 is seeing that the U.S. Army is mobilizing a unit specialized for winter conditions, but not knowing if the intended mission is violent repression of an American city or stealing territory from a U.S. treaty ally.
January 18, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
If you want to get rid of AI Overview on Google, installing AdGuard seems to have worked for me.
January 18, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Happy birthday #WimRijsbergen
#BOTD in 1952.
January 18, 2026 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Rest well, king.
January 17, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Life tip: If you miss going to video libraries and borrowing videos or dvds, I'm delighted to tell you that *actual* libraries have dvds, *and* you can reserve films to borrow (whether they're new or old).

*Additionally* they have loads of films that aren't on streaming.
a blockbuster store with a man walking in front of it
Alt: a blockbuster store with a man walking in front of it
media.tenor.com
January 18, 2026 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Brian O'Halloran
Let's remember the Finnish politician who was asked recently what would happen if Russia moved to invade.

"1 million Finns running to the border with petrol bombs"
If the US invade Greenland causing the collapse of NATO that removes article 5 then Russia just wade into Finland, is that the plan, Twittler? Is that what Daddy told you to do? Then again after years of pushing troops through the meat grinder in Ukraine I doubt Russian have the assets to mount that
January 18, 2026 at 8:41 AM