The joy of neighbours

[Bindweed]

Was a beautiful clear evening, very cold and still. Got to try my new eyepiece finally, which I got for my birthday. (Urchins had given in as it was too cold). I was sketching M36 and M37 and thoroughly enjoying myself. When my neighbour who I hadn't heard,was out cat herding leant on the fence and asked if I was a mad was I aware how cold it was. I jumped and fell off my foldable chair! Not my best moment! Oddly I was aware how cold it was...

Still was a glorious nights viewing was worth waiting 10 days for!

[xtreemchaos]

yer mate it was cold lastnight I lasted a hour before retreating into my obsyroom , the temp at 1030pm was -9 here in south wales. great report, thanks ,charl.

[A budding astronomer]

Great report mate! Very funny story.

[Ouroboros]

Neighbours! Don't you love 'em!  Mine are away at the moment so no lights! It was lovely and dark here ...... and only -1 in balmy Cornwall, though it felt colder.   Problem was EQMOD playing up grrrrrrrr!  Wasted time from 8:00 to 9:30 trying to fix it. In the end I gave up, attached the hand set to drive the mount and did some visual for an hour or so.  Beautiful. Explored some of the clusters in Auriga, and looked at old favourites Pleiades and M42. Finally came in around 10:30 with frozen feet and hands. I reckoned I'd need my wits about me to solve what appears to be a computer problem tomorrow (now today). 

[laudropb]

I have a friend who got a terrible shock one night. There he was observing the beauties of the night sky in the early hours one morning when he was startled by the light of a bright torch shone directly on him. It was 2 burly police officers. A neighbour had reported a prowler in the back gardens. After recovering from his shock he then had to spend the next half hour explaining why he could not have a light on so that people could recognise him. Neighbours.... Bah Humbug.

[Ouroboros]

A screeching banshee from hell frightened the living day lights out of me the other night. It was a passing owl. At least I assume that's what it was. 

[spaceboy]

I hate when your out at your dark site and nature decides to investigate what your doing in their field. Of course they don't come close enough so you can see them with your dimly lit red torch. No that would too easily put your mind at rest. They would much rather circle you snapping twigs and rustling grass till your mind starts playing tricks on you and all focus on the stars goes out of the window.

[bejay1957]

Perhaps a daft thought/question, but how 'bright' does a LED head torch show up on IR surveillance cameras?  Only ask as a number of times I've been out either stargazing (with tripod mounted binocs) or with the camera I've been hassled by the passing police chopper; on one occasion I was trying to photo a Lunar eclipse when the chopper put itself right in the way and played its searchlight down on me (bye bye night vision!) - camera was on manual focus so don't think the IR focus emitter could have been glowing.  Never had any consequent visit by police officers, but if its coincidence its darned weird...

[fireballxl5]

17 hours ago, bejay1957 said:

Perhaps a daft thought/question, but how 'bright' does a LED head torch show up on IR surveillance cameras?  Only ask as a number of times I've been out either stargazing (with tripod mounted binocs) or with the camera I've been hassled by the passing police chopper; on one occasion I was trying to photo a Lunar eclipse when the chopper put itself right in the way and played its searchlight down on me (bye bye night vision!) - camera was on manual focus so don't think the IR focus emitter could have been glowing.  Never had any consequent visit by police officers, but if its coincidence its darned weird...

It's more likely your body heat that they are detecting with their IR cameras...

[spaceboy]

I might be wrong but an LED head torch wouldn't give off infared other than in the form of heat so it would show up significantly. Point a tv remote at an IR surveillance camera and try changing channels then you may stand out.

[Marci]

My entire back garden is floodlit at low level (about a foot off the floor) with IR thanks to 2x outdoor Wifi IP cameras watching for furries, flappies n’ crawlers - this means the local fuzz when passing over head tended to make a quick circle or two then move on - they get the body heat on the thermal and get curious, then flip to night vision and can immediately see what I’m doing thanks to my own IR lamps, n’ promptly naff off n’ leave me in peace without having them point the floods at me! Nowadays they just fly straight past (I’m on their direct flightpath from the helipad at J41/M1 to Wakefield city centre) and don’t even give me a passing wave.

[cotterless45]

Never mind the fuzz  ! We got a lovely golf driving range about a mile away. Nobody cares that the southern sky has gone. They pack up about 10.30 for hairnets and cocoa,Old Nick.

[DeepSkyBagger]

Golf driving ranges are the pits. I've never seen such useless sky lighting. There's one near us - fortunately below my eye level, so not a direct problem.

[FenlandPaul]

On 30 November 2016 at 19:18, bejay1957 said:

Perhaps a daft thought/question, but how 'bright' does a LED head torch show up on IR surveillance cameras?  Only ask as a number of times I've been out either stargazing (with tripod mounted binocs) or with the camera I've been hassled by the passing police chopper; on one occasion I was trying to photo a Lunar eclipse when the chopper put itself right in the way and played its searchlight down on me (bye bye night vision!) - camera was on manual focus so don't think the IR focus emitter could have been glowing.  Never had any consequent visit by police officers, but if its coincidence its darned weird...

I work for a company that manufactures LED obstruction beacons - the red and flashing white lights that go on top of wind turbines and broadcast towers to stop planes crashing into them.  We have special IR variants becuase the usual red and white don't show up well through night vision goggles; in some countries, that's a requirement near military bases etc.  So I guess, in answer to your question, it's more likely to be your body heat and any dew strips that are showing up!