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Terrifying experiences while observing?

Spica

By Spica
in The Astro Lounge

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tyke

tyke

Posted
Posted

Most upsetting night was just now,finding out after forking out on a mak cass that im going to have to buy a power pack and dew band ....just building up courage to tell the missus now...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

Posted
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Most upsetting night was just now,finding out after forking out on a mak cass that im going to have to buy a power pack and dew band ....just building up courage to tell the missus now...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Did the powerpack not come included?

Forget the heated dew band. Make a dew shield with a camping mat and duct tape.

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proflight2000

proflight2000

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Personally, when going out on your own you should treat it like a mountain walk, let someone know exactly where you are and at worst maybe send a text every few hours, especially in these days of economic mayhem, anything valuable will be sought. My night spooks are the bats, i like them but they make my heart stop when they suddenly just appear, normally after a moth has just gone past.

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assasincz

assasincz

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For me, both the most terrifying and amazing experience was when a crew of Mi-24 Combat Helicopter was practising night landings on night-vision with all the lights turned off just tens of meters away from me at an emergency airfiled that is my observing spot. They have repeated the procedure a couple of times during the night and once, they even invited their mate Mi-17 Transport Helicopter to accompany them. I was really afraid that they were unaware of my presence and would land on top of me, but hey, they had night-vision on! My swiss-army knife felt so unnecessary and hopeless then, come to think of it.

When being blinked upon with my flash light, they responded in a similar fashion with their spot lights. As an apology for their rude behaviour, they have thrown me a couple of chemical lights sticks and released a couple of flares for good measure :icon_salut: good show.

Since then, an occasional bat, fox or rabbit is no biggie.

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Anweniel

Anweniel

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The usual cats bats mice and other wildlife frequently scare the life out of me during observing sessions.

A couple of bright meteors have caught me unawares and I actually physically ducked when one went overhead, lol scared of my own hobby!

Another one that gets me quite often lately is when the Dslr auto shuts down even though I know its gonna happen often forget and the sudden clunk amid the silence made my heart jump in my mouth a few times :icon_salut:

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ZEbbEDY

ZEbbEDY

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Got a pine marten that lives under next doors shed and it growls if you go near it, also can hear loads of things scurrying about. Live on the edge of some woods too and the deer trample through it. Sketchy when you see pairs of illuminated eyes

Also never know when you are being stalked by a big black panther

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

Posted
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Q: Can hedgehogs climb walls?

I ask because my garden is a sealed environment. Two solid gates at the entrances/exits and is surrounded on 3 sides by high walls.

Yet these little prickly guys seem to find there way into my back garden.

Dont get me wrong..............i love them. I'm just puzzled as to how they get into my garden.

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Walky

Walky

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Excuse my English, sometimes the grammar may not be what it should as I am not English nor American. Did I make a mistake in my typing? "Been" instead of "beeing" I guess? Bugged as in "bothered" intended! Does it have another meaning? Sorry if so!

Bugged is perfectly right in casual American English, my friend. I am also not English and not born speaking American English, though American born. (not a riddle). I suppose the one questioning is not familiar with the terminology. BTW, I also confuse been with being.

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cloudythoughts

cloudythoughts

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The shoe is sometimes on the other foot...

Some while ago I had been on a meteor watch with a group of astronomers. The dark site was inside a gated reservoir. I left a little early as I was getting cold - probably about 1am. I kept the car lights off to avoid blinding everyone and drove down to the gates (easy with night adapted vision). The gates are locked, so as I was now hidden from everyone I turn on the full beam - I rather surprised the police car that was parked up on the other side of the gates.

It left in a hurry, so I unlocked and went on my way. Not surprisingly I got stopped on the way home by the police. After explaining what we had been doing they admitted that they been somewhat startled. They had been there for several hours and had no idea we were behind them. They had been laying wait for a car that had recently been 'terrorising' several local villages by driving through them at high speed in the early house of the morning.

I showed them Orion and the Pleiades and they went off happy.

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Spica

Spica

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Bugged is perfectly right in casual American English, my friend. I am also not English and not born speaking American English, though American born. (not a riddle). I suppose the one questioning is not familiar with the terminology. BTW, I also confuse been with being.

Hehehe, great! I was living in North America for 5 years, that's where I picked it up :icon_salut: Funny though how things might mean different things on different geographic areas, dialects. Good thing astronomy itself is universal :evil:

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Spica

Spica

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For me, both the most terrifying and amazing experience was when a crew of Mi-24 Combat Helicopter was practising night landings on night-vision with all the lights turned off just tens of meters away from me at an emergency airfiled that is my observing spot. They have repeated the procedure a couple of times during the night and once, they even invited their mate Mi-17 Transport Helicopter to accompany them. I was really afraid that they were unaware of my presence and would land on top of me, but hey, they had night-vision on! My swiss-army knife felt so unnecessary and hopeless then, come to think of it.

When being blinked upon with my flash light, they responded in a similar fashion with their spot lights. As an apology for their rude behaviour, they have thrown me a couple of chemical lights sticks and released a couple of flares for good measure :icon_salut: good show.

Since then, an occasional bat, fox or rabbit is no biggie.

Too funny! Good thing they didn't mis-interpreted your telescope for an anti-aircraft gun :evil: If so, I guess not even a good re-collimation would bring it back to life....

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benjii

benjii

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Q: Can hedgehogs climb walls?

I ask because my garden is a sealed environment. Two solid gates at the entrances/exits and is surrounded on 3 sides by high walls.

Yet these little prickly guys seem to find there way into my back garden.

Dont get me wrong..............i love them. I'm just puzzled as to how they get into my garden.

Yes, they can. They're supposed to climb trees to get tasty lava, but I guess in this age, garden fences do. They also dig under if the ground is soft. They are the garden ninjas.

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nightfisher

nightfisher

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Yes, they can. They're supposed to climb trees to get tasty lava, but I guess in this age, garden fences do. They also dig under if the ground is soft. They are the garden ninjas.

they cant climb trees

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JB80

JB80

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Pheasants.

After the hatch we had 4 or 5 of them down the back of the yard for a while and everytime I startle them they startle me equally.

Nothing overly terrifying though, there were some huge bangs once that had me on the floor though but I think it was just a car backfiring.

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Pug

Pug

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I live 15 miles away from an RAF base, saw a couple of stealth bombers go over once. I was convinced I'd seen a UFO till another stargazing (and ex RAF mechanic) friend rang to ask if I'd seen them. Huge and quiet!

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