Your best moments in astronomy.

[Astro Imp]

Unboxing and setting up my scope then waiting for it to get dark and seeing Jupiter and the four moons, unforgettable.

[fondofchips]

For me it is looking at objects in real life that I have only seen in books before, even if Jupiter & Saturn don't look as good as the pictures in the book through my telescope.

[Pete Presland]

there been lots of memorable moments since the late 70's (earliest memories) right upto know (with a blurry break in the 90's doing the family thing)

in order its probably along these lines

seeing the rings of Saturn, and moons of Jupiter through my Tasco in the late 70' early 80's

Halleys comet in the winter 1986 after weeks of searching! not a stunner but what an historical object, makes me feel very very nostalgic thinking about it no comet will ever top it for me! 

Halle bopp in 1997 may not have Halleys history but a visual treat for the whole family

coming back to astronomy around 2006 and realising i could own an excellent quality 8" scope without robbing bank! amazing how time changed while my children were growing up.

1st decent webcam image, oh my god! i can image the planets!!!!!!!!!!!!

1st DSLR image , oh my god!  i mean me, i can image things like the Crab nebula (another historical object), Orion nebula, star clusters ect... never imagined i would be able to do that!

built the obsy and started guided images as well.

the internet is also an astronomy wow moment. Stellarium, heavens above ect... have made astronomy so much easier than my days in the late 70's armed with a single A5 size book with a few star charts in the back and the position of the planets that i had to pencil in each time i went out, great days though they were! 

joined here in 2009 and what a community can not believe its been 4 years. the amount of information and advice available on here is amazing. whoops sorry that went on a bit!

[rjc404]

Many great moments mentioned above, some I'll echo below but my one of my most recent wow astronomical eureka moments was finally figuring out how to properly polar align my mount - made every subsequent evening out so much less of a hassle!

Hopefully I've still got many more moments to come but my favourite so far are:

- Sweeping the winter skies with binoculars for the first time when I was a kid and just watching the great constellations, like Orion slowly rise slowly through the night (used to have a great view of this rising over a small river with large field behind it, which was fantastic when clear and the mist was rising).

- Seeing Jupiter for the first time through my telescope this September (could have stood there all night).

- Getting up close and personal with a many people's least favourite target - the moon, through my telescope this autumn (only had a scope since July) and taking in the different phases and plays of shadow and contrast.

- Finishing processing my first DSO and realising I could actually capture another galaxy through my scope and camera.

- Also, don't tell the wife... but in my younger days (before I met her) when on a year out travelling I managed to enjoy a lucky appearance of the northern lights in a log cabin hostel half way up a mountain in British Columbia in a hot tub with champagne and two bikini clad European female travelers (I'm pretty sure it was the northern lights I saw and not the effects of the champagne anyway!)

Still waiting to see:

- Saturn

- Mars

- Any good comets (is ISON viewable through a 6" f8 scope if I wake up early enough?)

- A good meteor shower

- if Betelgeuse goes supernova anytime soon (or in my lifetime) that would be amazing to.

- the majority of the great catalogs of celestial objects

[Astro Imp]

 if Betelgeuse goes supernova anytime soon (or in my lifetime) that would be amazing to.

It's amazing how many of us want to see Orion loose his shoulder 

[Luke]

In no particular order:

- first star party, enjoying it much more than expected!

- first look at the Virgo cluster of galaxies. My goodness, it gives you a sense of the scale of things to see so many galaxies in a small chunk of the sky

- seeing my first galaxy, M31

- getting into solar astronomy, much more compatible as I'm not a night owl

- sharing the views with my other half

- appreciating the moon again - I think after first being wowed by the moon I got carried away with all the other stuff, forgetting just how awesome the moon is to look at. There aren't many objects we can see in high detail, so the moon is right up there in that respect

- seeing the Orion Nebula for the first time

[Crebles]

Great thread. I've got two:

1. 0630 8th Feb 2013. Getting up about 6am and seeing Saturn through my own telescope for the first time. In my own back garden. From where I live. Me. Saturn. The Saturn. LIke I used to draw when I was 8. With rings and everything (and they're not 'ears' Galileo, Durr).

2. any other time I'm outside in the dark and quiet, with bins or manual dob and a star map just.... looking at it all.

[Mark Henthorne]

Last year's near occultation (from my location) of Jupiter by the Moon sticks very much in my mind. Seeing Jupiter and its moons right up close to our Moon was awesome. I saw many photos of this event afterwards, and not a one was in any way whatsoever a comparison to what I saw through the glass (of a modest ETX-105PE) with my eye. So glad the cloud stayed away during the event.

[wayneh]

Seeing jupiter for the first time on friday night through my 8" scope what a sight to see. 

[Pig]

My first total zoom on the moon was brilliant just being able to see inside the craters was great.

Seeing Saturn for the first time is also a wonderful experience .

My most exhilarating though was my first true fireball with a great big long tail (no scope needed) you could feel the air crackle as it went by

Every time I go out there is always something that amazes me

[tenbyfifty]

one good thing about lots of cloudy nights in the uk is that when u do get a totally clear night that sense

of wonder at the overall grandeur of the night sky gets renewed 

[rowan46]

 The first time I saw the pleiades as a group of stars rather than a fuzzy cloud. The first time I saw the milky way, I was 11 and away with my church youth group in blaenau ffestiniog, fast forward to hale bopp naked eye over birmingham first view of jupiter and its moons, m42 first nebula seen through a scope first view of saturn. they are all still favourites of mine 

[LTB]

Mine would be setting up my telescope at my Brother in Laws Cabin high up in the Rockies(about 8700 feet in altitude in Northern Colorado)  and at about as dark a site as you can find in the USA.  It was so dark you literally could not see your hand in front of your face when all the lights were out.  I actually spent more time just looking up rather than looking thru my telescope because its rare for me to see the milky way like that from my spots in town.

[spacenut]

Here is my favourite moments

1 Sitting on my parents bed with my mam watching Hale Bopp

2 seeing Saturn for the first time, it was through a 4'' scope, it was a warm night and the apple and sweet rocket was flowering. So I had a brilliant sight and wonderful smells.

3 Getting my cpc 925 three years ago.

4 joining SGL

5 Everything up to now

[OneEyedSam]

2 standouts for me, both on the same night !

1. M33 from a dark site in a 24" dob. Structure beyond belief, almost photographic

2. The whole of the veil nebula sitting among its neighbouring stars. In a tv np101 and wide eyepiece

[avtaram]

My first wow moment was when I saw the constellation of Scorpius while on holiday in India.

I knew straight away it was Scorpius because it actually does look like a Scorpion.

Its a shame Its not all visible from where I am in the Uk.

Avtaram

[robbie c]

For me it would have to be when I see something for the first time it always gets a big WOW 

[KevUU]

For me it's not so much individual sights as much as more general experiences, I think. So Saturn and M31 etc were good but not my big standouts. The things that do come first to mind are:

1. The first time I thought to put binos up to the night sky. I can still remember, I was looking at Cassiopeia naked eye then put the binos up, WHAT? there are HOW MANY stars around just one of the main bright ones? Binos down, 7 or 8 stars, binos up about 50, binos down, binos up, down, up, ... just incredulous and gobsmacked and had a proper hippy moment.

2. Taking my recently bought ST80 to the Lakes and sitting in the middle of a field in the middle of the night spotting around at Cas, Albireo, Lyra and M57, Coma cluster, ... Just the realisation that there's so much up there and suddenly it's all become accessible. To little me, with a little scope I just bought. Another hippy wow moment combined with the excitement of the possibilities, of the adventure that was waiting for me.

3. Okay the Andromeda galaxy was pretty cool, but more "wow" for me was getting the three - M31/M32/M110 - in one 3.75 degree fov, it seemed to give the thing more perspective. This is a view I always go back to and it always has me shaking my head with a grin on my face

4. The whole process of getting Jeffrey, my 8" dob. From being dissuaded from a C8 by newly met friends at my first starparty, to choosing the dob and receiving THOSE boxes at work, the christmas feeling Mav mentioned when unpacking them, and the sheer excitement of using it for the first few times - like my earlier wows it was the excitement of realising what could be possible next, of good times to come. And wow did it ever deliver on the anticipation

5. Okay I lied. My notes remind me how utterly blown away I was by my first view of a glob through 8” of aperture - first M3 then M5 and finally M13.

6. I had a night earlier this year when I hit 32 new galaxies on my way to and through Markarian's Chain. From the day spent planning my route, to the night itself, and the next day working out what I'd seen and making sense of my notes and reporting on here, the whole thing was a great experience and that night is still my best night of viewing, already taking on near-mythical qualities in my memory

Dear me how I ramble on!

Thanks for an interesting thread Nick, and of course for convincing me to get the dob

[chiltonstar]

Many of the above, plus:

Shoemaker-Levy asteroid impact on Jupiter

Venus transit

Milky Way from most of the way up Monte Rosa (14,000 feet)

Chris

[faulksy]

mine has to be like many others and it is Saturn, I had a 4" tasco reflector which I couldn't see much with, then one night I pointed at what I thought was a star and it was Saturn I very nearly cried, still surprices me now. second wow was Saturn again this year around july and everyone on here was saying how good the seeing was looking at Saturn, so I wound up the power and in the end I was using nearly 400x on Saturn with unbelievable detail it was like a image. great post nick 

[Scooot]

Telling my brother I was thinking of buying a scope and what he thought about it. I spoke to him about once a year before then, it's more like once a week now.

He was the astronomer, ground his own mirror out at 16, but had let his interest lapse over the past 25 years. Now he's back into it he's cursing me because I've cost him so much dosh. He's currently making an 18" fork mount newtonian. He ground the mirror, that's now illuminized. He s made the tube, and had a rotatable top made for it. Now he's going to set about the mount. All the engineering skills are on one side of my family.

[neil groves]

has to be when I was just 14 and seeing Jupiter with it's 4 main moons through my 3" refractor, night after night I would look at this view feeling just as excited as the previous night

Neil.

[Demonperformer]

Saturn (through an ETX-80 @ 16x - rings closed -'stumbled' across it and thought "that's weird ... wonder what that is ... surely it can't be ... ? ... WOW!"

The 2004 Venus transit in Poole Park all morning.

My first sunspots.

Taking a 30s exposure of the Sagittarius area, comparing it with CdC and identifying Pluto on the image.

Taking a series of pictures of Neptune over a period of about three weeks and converting them into an animation.

Following CY Aqr through it's entire 88-minute variability ... I could actually see it changing ... or maybe I was just convincing myself ...

And I still get some: Most recently in June this year when, totally without believing I would actually be able to see it from my home, I found and photgraphed (sort of!) M7, just 4.6 degrees above the horizon (excluding streetlights, blocks of flats, trees, etc).

[HIP3802]

The first time I saw the Double Cluster through a telescope I was 11 or 12 years old (Gosh!  40 years ago!), and it was the first thing I had seen other than the moon, Jupiter and Saturn. I was captivated - and even now I can spend ages lost in star clusters.

[Bubbles82]

Got to be the simple first proper look at the moon and a few months later Saturn through a scope. This scope was a present I had brought my better half for christmas as her grandad had always told her about the constellations and planets as a child whilst they walked the dogs at night and she had learned a lot from him and after loosing him I knew this would remind her of him but to be honest I was hooked from the moment we set it up christmas day and went out for our first look at the night sky.

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