A rare solar eclipse occurred over Ireland this morning with only a lucky few managing to peek through the clouds to witness the phenomenon.
While an overcast sky denied most of the country from seeing the moon block off up to 40 per cent of the rising sun, it was possible in certain locations.
The eclipse occurred in the skies over Ireland from 8.30am morning and lasted for about an hour.
"It was fantastic. There was 99 per cent cloud cover and the one per cent that was clear happened to be just the point at which the sun passed" said David Moore, chairperson of Astronomy Ireland, who watched the eclipse in Howth, Co Dublin with a group of fellow amateur astronomers.
"There was only a 44 minute window in Dublin to view and we got to see it through the gap for about 10 minutes" he said.
He added that since it will be March 2015 before the next partial solar eclipse, he was "doubly glad" that he was lucky enough to see this one.
Other parts of the country were not so fortunate.
In Waterford, while those in rural areas fared a little better, a heavy fog over the city denied early morning workers from catching a glimpse of the eclipse there.
In Limerick, amateur astronomer Dave Lillis admitted that it was "nothing short of a miracle" that he even managed to see 20 seconds of the eclipse as most of the people in the area were unable to see through the clouds.
"I have a house elevated and could look out at the south east horizon. There was a tiny sliver of a gap in the clouds and I got about 15 to 20 seconds. If I had blinked I would have missed it. People around here saw nothing. What I saw was a fluke" he said.
It was a similar story in Galway where the Galway Astronomy Club reported that due to the overcast sky, they were unable to witness the eclipse at all and although in Kerry they did manage a brief sighting, there was a similar story of problems with cloud cover.
Other countries had a much better view, with southern Spain, Israel and the Nordic nations allowing for the some of the best sightings.