Tell us your best visual observation!

[Ags]

My 1st Saturn view was with a 60mm Tasco as well - back in 1982. I stayed up until the early hours to see it and I simply could not believe how it looked in the eyepiece of that little scope

My local department store is having a sale and they have a tasco refractor on a pedestal (like it's a holy relic) - a 60mm offering 666x magnification, according to the box. It made me sentimental for the views of Jupiter I had as a kid in a similar scope...

[Anders]

Location: Åmål, Sweden

Sky: One of the best nights I've seen since starting with this hobby, around mag 5.5 I'd guess

Experience: About 13-14 months

Date of observation: Two weeks ago, September 2011

Observation: the eastern and western veil nebula, lots and lots of filaments spiraling around eachother, my new 16" is amazing!

//Anders

[laser_jock99]

Using Mark1 Eyeball - the Plough shining through a curtain of the Auroro Borealis (I was over Northern Canada at 37000' flying back to the UK)

You're lucky then. I've flown back and forth a few times (deliberatly booking a window seat on the left or right hand side (depending on direction)) and seen nothing!

[RikM]

My favourite visual observation was having a look through a LB 16" at the SGL5 starparty. I have no idea what the magnification was.

Steve, the scopes owner, lined it up on M57 for me and I was blown away. I had just found it for the first time in my, then new, 150P and it looked like the standard little grey smoke ring and I was stoked about that, but in the 16" with dark skies and just the right magnification, it was so bright and clear like a turquoise bead with a diamond pinpoint at it's heart.

A view I will never forget and probably never surpass.

[Pingster]

Its amazing what impact a great observation has on you especially when you have a point of reference.

[JimStan]

I would have to chip in with those who say their first view of Saturn was the most awsome moment in their amateur astronomer "career" !

My first view of the ringed planet was through a tiny reflector telescope that I obtained as a kid. It was probably around a 3 incher, with a focal length of maybe 24 inches. I can't recall how old I was at the time, but I do remember that I didn't even know what collimation was then, and thought that those three knobs holding the main mirror on its springs was to line the main mirror up with the finder scope ! ( and NOT the other way around ! )

But collimated or not, I could definately make out the rings, and even remember seeing the shadow of the planet which was cast on one side of the rings, which separated it from the rings themselves.

I was absolutely mesmerized by the view that little scope gave me of Saturn, Jupiter, and of course, the moon.

All this well before I became a teenager! Oh, how I wish I had that telescope today!

Jim S

[southernman]

For me it would have to be supernova 1987A with the naked eye. Just knowing what it was and how far away it is was very humbling.

[yeti monster]

Without a doubt, and most likely never to be surpassed, the event that restarted my astronomy BIG time...

Location: Wu Han, Hu Bei, Peoples Republic of China.

Skies: Lightly overcast.

Experience: Very little, Saturn, Jupiter, partial Solar eclipse, Lunar eclipses etc.

Date: 22nd July 2009.

Event: Total Solar eclipse (even typing those words brings the hairs on the back of my neck up).

An absolutely awsome experiance, something everyone must try to witness at least once before they die!

[Moonshane]

Location: NW England

Skies: Average transparency, seeing excellent. Bortle scale about 7

Experience: Reasonable experience over around three years but still very much a learner.

Date: 25th April 2011

Event: Crepe ring, Saturn

Equipment: 12" f5.3 Orion Optics dobsonian, Baader Genuine Ortho 7mm at 228x

I have had many wow moments but this night Saturn made me constantly gasp with the clarity of the view and the detail visible in the rings and the planetary disc. Seeing was the best I have ever experienced and the resolution available in the 12" dob really made the most of this.

For the first time I also managed to see the inner Crepe ring which is a grey misty affair and seen when conditions come good. I saw this initially in my 6" scope and confirmed it in the bigger dob.

I rarely get above 200x on planets but it was certainly possible tonight and I could probably have pushed a little more but I was too busy soaking in the view to worry about that!

[Charon]

Saturn with my ETx 80, looking forward to viewing it with my CPC800.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

something everyone must try to witness at least once before they die!

The only total eclipse i have had the chance to experience was hidden by clouds

[swamp thing]

There is just no way I can think of just one observation that is a stand out winner.

I have been doing this hobby since I was 14 (too many years to want to talk about:D), and have seen so much that has just blown my mind to pick just one event.

Regards Steve

[navydave]

first view of jupiter and 4 moons with binos - outstanding!

[David Smith]

Really difficult to choose but probably comet Hyakutake in '96. I was still using my old Tasco 60mm scope then and had failed to see a comet in 7 years of trying! Waited for what seemed like weeks, reading internet reports of how spectacular it was whilst waiting for a clear night to go out and have a look for myself. Finally 26th March 1996 the skies clear and I psyched myself up to go and search for another comet that I probably would not be able to see.

Of course as soon as I got outside and looked up I had no need for the scope I was carrying! Rushed back in the house and dragged any one I could find to come and have a look!

David

[navydave]

the first view of pleiades through decent binos blew me away too!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

the first view of pleiades through decent binos blew me away too!

After 32 years of observing, they still have that ability. I saw the Pleiades with my 80mm APO from a very dark site in Austria, quite high up in the mountains. The view is just stunning. The reflection nebula around the stars was clearly visible. Awesome.

[Starlight 1]

Awesome noctilucent cloud display a couple of Summers ago,while sleeping rough in a cornfield (don't ask!)

You have got to win with this replie. lol "been there and got the book"

[dezmo1]

I popped outside for a late smoke last night (02:20,17th) and took the bino's with me. Orion was nice and bright so I had a gander at it...then I saw my first Nebula!!! blew me away.

So the Orion Nebula is my best (and only:))

[Mr Q]

Observing Omega Centauri - seeing this bright globular the size of the full moon in a 10" newt was awesome when I lived in NM (SW U.S.). And that was after some 50+ years of visual observing.

[stargraz3r]

Jupiter.

2 of the 4 moons had shadows on its surface.

[RichardL]

Some years ago I was looking at Jupiter through my 6" newtonian, wondering why I could only see three moons. I had checked Redshift (planetarium software) before going out, and there should definitely have been all four on show. Baffled, I went back indoors and checked Redshift again - yep, should be able to see four. Went back outside - there were only three. Then the fourth moon started to materialise out of nowhere about a third of a Jupiter-diameter from the planet. It took me a few seconds to realise I was witnessing a moon (Io, as it turned out) coming out of eclipse - astonishing! The whole event took about 3 or 4 minutes from start to finish.

I have seen transits and shadow transits several times, and you see reference to such events quite frequently (eg in astro magazines and on this forum), but I have never come across reference to the starts and ends of eclipses. They must be relatively common. Has anyone else ever seen one?

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

I have seen transits and shadow transits several times, and you see reference to such events quite frequently (eg in astro magazines and on this forum), but I have never come across reference to the starts and ends of eclipses. They must be relatively common. Has anyone else ever seen one?

I think they're called occultations? I could be wrong though...

[twotter]

Seeing the ice cap on Mars in January 2010....a real moment!

[derekbcox]

saturn back in the summer was good for me , and jupiter with the moons was clear too.

[Ian123]

Mine has to be when i had my scope and i viewed Saturn.

What a glorious sight that was, nice disc planet and glorious ring.

I'm gonna cheat and name a second, now i have bins only i recently viewed M37 and that was a fabulous sight in the bins.