One of the perils of stargazing in the New Forest is the New Forest ponies. Most of the time, they are harmless beasts, and watch us setting up our telescopes and twiddling bits from afar, swishing their tails. One evening, however, a bolder horse decided to investigate what these humans were doing with the lights and things. He came among the telescopes and stood there for some time. As large quadrupeds are the natural enemy of telescopes, none of the telescope owners were willing to tackle said horse. It might bumble into one of our precious optical instruments and do a lot of damage. The