What has been your most thrilling view?

[Mike73]

Seeing spiral arms in M51 and also M13 when I first got my 16".

[Daniel-K]

Seeing spiral arms in M51 and also M13 when I first got my 16".

m101 blew my socks off in april this year when i took the 10" Dob to wales to mag 7 sky's it was glowing in the center of the 24mm panoptic

[mjpfc]

I sat on culver down on a gorgeous summers day in 2004 and watched Venus slide across the sun from one side to the other

in serene quiet. I was looking through a 20cm newtonian with a full aperture filter.

At times I actually thought I could feel the earth moving through space. (Probably says more about me than transits)

I love seeing comets, planets/moon events and deep sky objects but those hours on the downs will go to my grave with me.

To make things even better I also saw it in 2012 (Long Glimpses through cloud)......a very lucky geezer.

Mick.

[timetraveler3]

Have only been at it two months but having a blast. The winner so far is the Double Cluster, found it on my second attempt. It was amazing in my 114 mm reflector. The same night the moon came up late and just as it came up it was behind some trees.  I checked it out and the tree branches superimposed on the moon was surreal. 

[chiltonstar]

M31 seen from 14,000 feet while camping on Monte Rosa in the Alps (Pentax 10x50 bins). Unforgettable. Took a bit of hyperventilation mind to get the Mk 1s working properly!

Chris

[Dave_D]

My very first look through a scope... Mizar and Alcor with one of those nasty 50mm fracs which i got for my 7th birthday waaaayyy back in 1973. Can still see it pictured in my head even now.

[Les E]

HI Dave,

Its strange that so many of the best memories are from the early days when our equipment levels were so basic.

Regards Les.

[LouisJB]

For me, probably finally locating the ring nebula was a real eureka moment (it's so small until you know how to spot it!).

As was coming back to the eyepiece centred on M31 to get such a clearer view of it than ever before. It was amazing, not sure what changed - dark adaption plus exceptional skies I guess. It was truly glorious, M31, M32 and M110 all in one wide-field view through the eyepiece. And all for a couple of hundred pounds, yet the impact was priceless.

[cantab]

Viewing M31 through the binoculars, when a pair of satellites gave it a flyby, flanking the galaxy. Unexpected, unrepeatable, and unforgettable.

Close second would be seeing the Venus transit last year. I really thought I'd miss it, but the clouds parted just in time to see a clear notch in the limb of the Sun.

[Scott]

my then 15 yr old daughter at the eyepiece was pretty special......didn't last long though

[Liquid360]

Upon receiving my first scope I typed Jupiter into the keypad. It slewed and upon hitting its mark I took to the eyepiece expecting to see black sky but instead there was Jupiter and it's moons.... I was stunned. "Awesome" gets tossed around a lot. This was awesome in the truest sense of the word.

- Nate

Birmingham, AL

[kirkster501]

M13 in a large Dob and a clear sky and a Nagler. You can almost reach out and touch it.   I also love M81 and M82 in a large aperture with wide field.

[AndyWB]

1st of August this year - yes the middle of summer - taking a long gander up from M8, viewing the Lagoon, Triffid, Swan and Eagle nebulae, numerous open clusters, and the Small Sagittarius star cloud, all without coming away from the eyepiece. I was there for ages, I started to cramp. It was kind of "Well it can't get any better - oh, the Eagle nebula is visible! And I can see shape!"

Fantastic. Roll on more summer astronomy (after the winter first, obviously!)