An Irish amateur astronomer has discovered a “demon” star from his homemade observatory in his back garden in Co. Kildare.

Dave McDonald from Celbridge found an eclipsing star while looking through his telescope on Sunday morning last.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the 46-year-old explained he how discovered the star.

"I was looking at the brightness of an asteroid and this star popped out at me," he said.

"I had started on my telescope at 9pm last Saturday evening and finished up at about 5am on Sunday. I looked at this star. It was like 'Hey, Presto!' I saw there was a big change in its brightness. I checked to see if the star had been discovered before over the past two days and got the official confirmation in yesterday," the Kildare man said.

"It is very exciting. My name will go down forevermore as the discoverer of this star in reputable journals," he said.