Astronomy Memories...

[Barry-W-Fenner]

4 hours ago, John said:

Like Mike, I've been observing for 40 years or so I have lots.

One of the very best didn't involve any equipment at all. Standing on the beach with my family at Marazion, Cornwall during the total eclipse of the Sun on 11th August in 1999. While the sky was mostly cloudy the sky darkened dramatically and the atmosphere on the beach was amazing. All the lights came on around the bay and you could see the out from underneath the edge of the shadow out to sea. Magical stuff - my kids still go on about it and they are all grown up now

We are somewhere in this photo:

 

Quite Ironic, No equipment at all, And yet one of your favorite astro memory's provided by the naked eye and shared with family 🙂  

I have heard some great things about the sky down in Cornwall, apparently it is excellent for a bit of astronomy!

 

Thanks John

 

 

 

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Rob & Mark

They are both very impressive lists of stand out points, If I am fortunate enough to see similar events I will feel privileged. If I am not mistaken I see a few similarity's in your lists, that speaks for itself that these were great events to witness.

I also see that the 1999 eclipse is getting a lot of thumbs up, I dont recall that if i'm honest!  

 

Baz

[John]

I read about the 1999 total eclipse when I was a lad in the early 1970's. Mum and Dad got my brother the Observers Book of Astronomy and a small hand held telescope for Christmas but he didn't show much interest so I nicked both the book and the scope. The scope was not much use to be honest but the Observers book and a cheap pair of 8x30 binoculars put me onto the path that eventually led to me standing on the darkened beach in August 1999 feeling special. Mind you, 25+ years of waiting and we get a pretty much clouded out eclipse - thats UK astronomy for you !

There was a wonderful lunar eclipse a few years back where the Moon went blood red and suddenly all the fainter stars and deep sky objects popped into view in a way that I've never seen before or since. Again though, no equipment needed apart from being up in the early hours

 

 

[Space Hopper]

If its any consolation, i was in Munich in the Fatherland for the same event. Lovely clear day for the most part, except for it clouding over for 30mins either side of totality 🙄 Had i been in Stuttgart instead, i'd have seen it all.....

 

However another of my favourite astronomy memories was the amazing fireball meteor event on the evening of March 4th 2012.

I was ultra lucky to see it......i was actually at work and I was driving a train at the time, fully dark adapted and in a good area of dark sky a few miles to the west of Uttoxeter.

By chance i was heading in the right direction and i spotted it in the north sky as it was heading southwards.

Those 10-15 seconds i followed it will live with me forever.

Never seen anything like it before or since. It must have brushed a lower part of the Earths atmosphere at some point because it looked like something out of a Hollywood movie just for a few seconds

I thought for a second it was coming down Chelyabinsk style, but it didn't ; it seemed to climb and passed overhead and gone forever all too soon.

Unforgettable.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Space Hopper

[TerryMcK]

39 minutes ago, John said:

 standing on the darkened beach in August 1999 feeling special.

 

 

I was doing an OU course in Astronomy back in 1997 and saw a page in one of the course books that showed the passage of the 1999 eclipse - I was bitten by the eclipse bug. As we know it was due to hit Cornwall. So we made arrangements to go see the eclipse and had driven down a couple of nights earlier. On the day I had everything setup, cameras with filters, filters for the kids and adults and made ready for the moment which was around 11AM if I remember correctly.

We patiently started to watch and it clouded over! I remember everything going eerily dark and could see sunlight in the far distance. Needless to say, like most other people in Cornwall, we saw nowt. In fact I think it rained where we were.

Then it was all over, we had a glass of champagne to "Welcome the sun back" and in the afternoon it was swelteringly hot and we went for a walk on the coastal path.

But....we were there.

Edited January 28, 2020 by TerryMcK

[mikeDnight]

For the Solar Eclipse of 1999 I was planning to stay home and observe it as a partial eclipse from Lancashire with my family. However, the friend I mentioned in my previous post, the one who needed physically removing from the Vixen refractor, called round at around 6.15pm without any prior warning. I invited him in and he told me he was about to drive south to observe the total eclipse, and to ask "would you like to come too?" I immediately said "no!" He replied "I've made sandwiches!" I was still unmoved by his suggestion.  However, while I was making everyone a brew in the kitchen my wife Chrissy came and said "you can't let him go all that way on his own." "Yes I can" said I, but she kindly persuaded me that going with him was the right thing to do. The next thing I remember was that we were hurtling along the M62 then the M5 with my friend driving, hitting every cats eye along the way, I kid you not.

His initial intention was to drive to Cornwall, but on seeing the signs to Plymouth I said "lets go to Plymouth instead, think of the fuel you'll save." We slept in the car over night, which was a bit weird, but as my head was stuck out of the window I remember looking up at a pristine starry sky. The Sun rose in a blue sky and all looked well for the eclipse.  So there we were in Plymouth waiting for this mega event. I saw the moon bite into the Sun, but then a blanket of cloud covered the scene untill the event was well and truly over.

The thing I remember most of all about the experience of sudden night time being thrust upon us wasn't the equally sudden plummet in temperature or the beautiful rippling wave patterns in the clouds that I've never seen before, it was the birds. While everyone else was looking up, I was amazed by the way the seagulls and pigeons plummeted to earth, coming in to roost as daylight was turned off. It is now my firm belief that birds are solar powered and no one will ever convince me otherwise.

  The same friend had an equally bright idea of us both travelling by steam train from Todmorden train station to Bath. He'd bought the tickets! His plan was to visit the William Herschel Museum, which did on the face of it seem quite appealing. And I like steam trains, so what could possibly go wrong?

 I decided to take my younger son out of school (this was 12 years ago, so he'd be 14), as this would be a memorable and educational experience for him. I wasn't wrong!  I drove us to Todmorden train station for 7am and the train arrived on time. We boarded and took our seats which were facing eachother and which had a table between. My son and I sat together while my friend sat opposite, then a man appeared and sat next to my friend and directly opposite me. It soon became apparent he was nuts about steam trains, and all I got for the entire length of the journey, was a relentless one sided discussion about steam trains. But just to add to the annoyance, he ended every statement with "isn't it?"   

My friend, my son and I walked to the Herschel Museum and my son found £20 blowing down the street, so not all bad. We had a great time looking round the museum and standing in the garden where William discovered Uranus; although the garde isn't as long today as it was in Williams day, so we couldn't stand in the area he observed from.  We wandered around Bath and I bought some coasters and a fridge magnet, just to make the trip worth while. Then back to the train. We sat together again of course and thought we'd lost our travelling companion,  so we were all quite relieved. Then, after the train had set off, he suddenly appeared and took his position opposite me. The three of us pretended to be asleep for well over an hour just so we didn't have to converse with our odd companion. It wasn't that we wanted to be mean or unfriendly, but he was driving us all mad. Anyhow, the fake self imposed sleep was abruptly ended when a steward pushing a trolley down the isle drove over my friends foot. Gosh that was a Grand Day Out, but for all the wrong reasons. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by mikeDnight

[Marvin Jenkins]

6 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I will hold you to that Marvin 🙂

I am hoping this year Jupiter will be higher and with a bit more experience at the eye piece i might be able to spot more detail 🙂

 

Baz

It is only a matter of time. I am looking at my Astro diary, only two years old! Can you begin to believe what Mark and John must have seen?

I do not have expert kit (look at my foot note) but rural dark skies. I have seen five planets. Five moons of Jupiter. The GRS and a moon shadow transit.
Saturn, turned my head inside out, saw the Cassini division. Furthermore a weather band or possible ring shadow. Mars, difficault but a view of the dark area of Maria.

M31 M32 M101 and M42 plus other clusters not identified. First comet 46p Wiritanen, all of the above with an Orion 130 on an eq2, before I upgraded to an EQ5 with Goto. Goes to show what you can see with basic kit.

The memories last a lifetime. Marv

[Marvin Jenkins]

Perhaps you have a DSLR? I put mine with stock lense on a tripod and captured a burning orange meteorite first shot. Complete accident, but it just goes to show that some nights do not need to be about scopes and eye pieces. A camera set to twenty seconds at ISO 800 or there about’s can be a great tool especially around meteor showers.

Marv

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Just having a catch up on all the posts, some wonderful story's and experiences that have been shared. It's really inspiring to think we can all look at the night sky and maybe if we are lucky see something that will stay with us!

I have also been fortunate enough to see what I believe to have been a blue meteorite cross the sky. It was around 3am one morning, I had the scope all set up and was looking arround wondering what to have a look at and a really slow blue tailed object went overhead and split into 3 smaller ones which shot in different directions, that was really cool and up there for me as one of my best sights

Baz

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

28 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Perhaps you have a DSLR? I put mine with stock lense on a tripod and captured a burning orange meteorite first shot. Complete accident, but it just goes to show that some nights do not need to be about scopes and eye pieces. A camera set to twenty seconds at ISO 800 or there about’s can be a great tool especially around meteor showers.

Marv

Some times it all comes together, in the right place at the right time and a little luck you get the magic shot!

Do you have the pic available, that would be great to see Marv

 

Baz

Edited January 28, 2020 by Barry-W-Fenner

[Paul M]

I think it must be the 1999 eclipse for me too. Seen under perfect conditions from Bulgaria

Going much further back I still remember watching 3 stars in a row close together making their way across the winter sky. I din't know anything about them. Then one day I looked through an astronomy book at the pictures and noticed a star chart with 3 stars in a row.  

I did my first star hopping that night and began to discover the Universe. Dyslexia had me talking about a constellation called "Iron", it was a couple of years before anyone listened to me enough to correct me. It was my sister who I'd asked to "test" me on astronomy who put me straight   I have very fond memories of my first wobbly steps into astronomy as a science, maybe age 9. The excitement of finding new things every single night and without any optical aid. Fond memories indeed!

[John]

Getting detail out of planets is something that you kind of develop at I've found.

The more you observe them and the longer you observe them for, the more detail you start to pick out. I think your eye and brain train themselves to make the most of the information (light) that the scope is presenting.

Seeing conditions have a lot of influence as well but if you keep at it you get more chances of catching the windows of best seeing each session. And those are when our gear really shows what it can do

I've had lots of moderate to good views of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn but relatively few occasions each year when it's all come together. When that happens though, the view can take your breath away even with quite modest aperture scopes. 

Its those glimpses of unsuspected detail and richness that keep you coming back for more I reckon

 

 

 

 

[dobblob]

It was the 1999  eclipse for me too . With my 15 yr old son ( on sufferance from my ex)  I took a long and convoluted train trip from E. Sussex across to the West Country and ended up at a pre-booked camp site near Redruth.

The journey itself was memorable in the days when trains ran (almost if at all!) on time. 

We taxied to the camp site and set up and then I introduced him to the delights of the local hostelries and great fish and chips.

Back at the site we lay with our heads poking out of the tent in our sleeping bags and watching the Perseid's falling. It was hopeful for the following day. Not a cloud in the sky.

Then came dawn. Wall to wall cloud!

We sat at the cliff edge as the sky darkened and totality approached. As noted in previous posts the seagulls went absolutely crazy but the campers were less impressed. As gloomy as the sky.

When it was all over I did my parental best to tempt my son into a shower before we hit the delights of Redruth. No chance!  I guess we all know about this....

Teens and water are like oil and water. 

Seeking entertainment we headed into Redruth. My son was overjoyed to find that perhaps the only cinema in Redruth was showing a Mike Meyers movie. I sat through this wishing the fire alarm would go off to spare me. But no.... I just had to take pleasure at my son laughing! Certainly the highlight of the whole trip.

The following day we hiked around the coastal path in glorious sunshine but still no shower in the offing...

Finally the train back home to present an odorous son back to his unappreciative mother. Of course I was to blame for the good time we had....

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

10 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Some times it all comes together, in the right place at the right time and a little luck you get the magic shot!

Do you have the pic available, that would be great to see Marv

 

Baz

It is stored on my laptop. I will PM you with it as it has already been posted on here sometime back.

M

[Barry-W-Fenner]

17 hours ago, Paul M said:

I think it must be the 1999 eclipse for me too. Seen under perfect conditions from Bulgaria

Going much further back I still remember watching 3 stars in a row close together making their way across the winter sky. I din't know anything about them. Then one day I looked through an astronomy book at the pictures and noticed a star chart with 3 stars in a row.  

I did my first star hopping that night and began to discover the Universe. Dyslexia had me talking about a constellation called "Iron", it was a couple of years before anyone listened to me enough to correct me. It was my sister who I'd asked to "test" me on astronomy who put me straight   I have very fond memories of my first wobbly steps into astronomy as a science, maybe age 9. The excitement of finding new things every single night and without any optical aid. Fond memories indeed!

Excellent read 🙂 

I am new to this hobby and am enjoying bumbling my way around the night sky trying to piece it all together. It has resulted in some frustrating sessions but when it all goes right you feel great for making them discovery's. 

Regards

Baz

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by Barry-W-Fenner

[Barry-W-Fenner]

1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

It is stored on my laptop. I will PM you with it as it has already been posted on here sometime back.

M

Ok Marv, Thank you

Edited January 29, 2020 by Barry-W-Fenner

[Barry-W-Fenner]

11 hours ago, John said:

Getting detail out of planets is something that you kind of develop at I've found.

The more you observe them and the longer you observe them for, the more detail you start to pick out. I think your eye and brain train themselves to make the most of the information (light) that the scope is presenting.

Seeing conditions have a lot of influence as well but if you keep at it you get more chances of catching the windows of best seeing each session. And those are when our gear really shows what it can do

I've had lots of moderate to good views of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn but relatively few occasions each year when it's all come together. When that happens though, the view can take your breath away even with quite modest aperture scopes. 

Its those glimpses of unsuspected detail and richness that keep you coming back for more I reckon

 

 

 

 

I very much agree. As mentioned I spent a bit of time on Jupiter late last year, and although it is currently quite low for us I did manage to see the GRS and various colour bands. The longer I looked the clearer these details became. Saturn on the other hand was a bit different, Once the initial excitement of actually seeing it passed i could not really see to much detail, I dont think I managed to see the division in the rings. I feel like I have unfinished business with Saturn and I look forward to seeing it at a higher altitude!

I have been real impressed with Uranus. Not much to see from a detail perspective but it showing a perfectly crisp round green / white disk.

Baz

[Alan White]

I think the 1999 Solar Eclipse is the one memory for me, but many others too.

Unluckily I was at work that day, but managed to make the work day coincide with a certain Cambridgeshire USAF base site day.
I managed to stop the entire workforce that I managed at the time and we all watched the eclipse, no cloud here (sorry John).
It was something I had been desperate to see and see it I did.

As others have said, the evening type of light, sudden plummet in temperature and the birds all confused was memorable as much as the eclipse itself.
This event has stuck with many of that team, all long gone to newer pastures or for some 6ft under sadly, but whenever any of us meet up, 
it's the one thing that gets talked about and they start that conversation.  The best days work / outreach I have ever had to date.

Before this the weeks of Comet, Hale Bopp are a big memory too.

 

[Paul M]

Hale Bopp was in the early years of my astronomical hiatus ( work/family/life). Even so,  it really grabbed my attention.

It would be nice to get another like that in my life time

[Barry-W-Fenner]

14 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Hale Bopp was in the early years of my astronomical hiatus ( work/family/life). Even so,  it really grabbed my attention.

It would be nice to get another like that in my life time

What year was Hale Bopp? I remember hearing all the fuss about it but was to interested in other things to care unfortunately. It seems like an age ago though.

 

Baz

[Geoff Barnes]

6 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

What year was Hale Bopp?

Google... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale–Bopp

[Barry-W-Fenner]

8 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Google... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale–Bopp

But that's cheating, you're only option was "phone a friend" 😁

Thank s for the info Geoff, I will have a read,  can't believe it was 95!

Baz

[Stu]

Great thread Baz.

I specifically recall a few main events when I think about my astronomy memories even though there are plenty of them including Jupiter and Saturn of course.

First up is the Venus transit of the Sun in 2012. We got up at 4am and walked up into the nearby heath to get a good low horizon. There was a stubborn low bank of cloud over the Sun which did not move until nearly the end. Mrs Stu kept encouraging me to stay, and sure enough before 3rd contact we got a lovely view in a break in the clouds through my PST. I was amazed how big Venus appeared, and grateful for the chance to see this once (or twice!) in a lifetime event.

Next up is Asteroid 2014 JO25, thread below has my report on it, but it was fun to observe and track under not always ideal conditions weather and kit wise.

SN2014J was a supernova in M82 back in 2014. It wasn't that hard to see with a small scope under reasonable conditions or with larger scopes under poor conditions, but I observed from home (mag 18.5 skies) with an old Televue Genesis 4" scope. It was challenging enough to find M82, but I got the SN with averted vision. Pretty tough observation and very rewarding. I enjoy pushing my self and kit like this; to me finding something like this in a small scope under LP is just as rewarding as finding a faint galaxy in a big dob under ideal conditions. A night or so later I observed it using a 12" dob and had a much better, but far less memorable view if that makes sense?

The lunar eclipse in 2015 was a beautiful clear night and I remember staying up all night, observing from 11pm through until 5am ish when it got too low. I also then picked up Jupiter and followed in through until it was full daylight. Great fun.

Last memory is not a single event but the four nights I spent at the SGL10 star party. Remarkably we had four clear nights, two of them with decent transparency. I had a 16" Sumerian Canopus scope with Push To on it, and had a wonderful time observing over 60 galaxies including my first views of Markarian's Chain. I saw more in that weekend in terms of deep sky objects than had in all my previous years of observing!

The other bonus was the partial solar eclipse which we observed as a group at a nearby site, we had beautiful clear skies unlike most of the country, and despite not being a full eclipse, you could really see the change in light. I had both white light and Ha scopes to view with and found it an amazing experience. All in all a fabulous weekend with some great friends from SGL.

I'm attaching some pics of the eclipses and the scopes at SGL10.

[Mark at Beaufort]

56 minutes ago, Stu said:

Great thread Baz.

I specifically recall a few main events when I think about my astronomy memories even though there are plenty of them including Jupiter and Saturn of course.

First up is the Venus transit of the Sun in 2012. We got up at 4am and walked up into the nearby heath to get a good low horizon. There was a stubborn low bank of cloud over the Sun which did not move until nearly the end. Mrs Stu kept encouraging me to stay, and sure enough before 3rd contact we got a lovely view in a break in the clouds through my PST. I was amazed how big Venus appeared, and grateful for the chance to see this once (or twice!) in a lifetime event.

Next up is Asteroid 2014 JO25, thread below has my report on it, but it was fun to observe and track under not always ideal conditions weather and kit wise.

SN2014J was a supernova in M82 back in 2014. It wasn't that hard to see with a small scope under reasonable conditions or with larger scopes under poor conditions, but I observed from home (mag 18.5 skies) with an old Televue Genesis 4" scope. It was challenging enough to find M82, but I got the SN with averted vision. Pretty tough observation and very rewarding. I enjoy pushing my self and kit like this; to me finding something like this in a small scope under LP is just as rewarding as finding a faint galaxy in a big dob under ideal conditions. A night or so later I observed it using a 12" dob and had a much better, but far less memorable view if that makes sense?

The lunar eclipse in 2015 was a beautiful clear night and I remember staying up all night, observing from 11pm through until 5am ish when it got too low. I also then picked up Jupiter and followed in through until it was full daylight. Great fun.

Last memory is not a single event but the four nights I spent at the SGL10 star party. Remarkably we had four clear nights, two of them with decent transparency. I had a 16" Sumerian Canopus scope with Push To on it, and had a wonderful time observing over 60 galaxies including my first views of Markarian's Chain. I saw more in that weekend in terms of deep sky objects than had in all my previous years of observing!

The other bonus was the partial solar eclipse which we observed as a group at a nearby site, we had beautiful clear skies unlike most of the country, and despite not being a full eclipse, you could really see the change in light. I had both white light and Ha scopes to view with and found it an amazing experience. All in all a fabulous weekend with some great friends from SGL.

I'm attaching some pics of the eclipses and the scopes at SGL10.

Nice memories Stu. I remember SGL10 very well and also viewing some wonderful DSOs through your 16" Dob - in particular NGC4490 (Cocoon Galaxy). Great time - great friendships.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

9 hours ago, Stu said:

Great thread Baz.

I specifically recall a few main events when I think about my astronomy memories even though there are plenty of them including Jupiter and Saturn of course.

First up is the Venus transit of the Sun in 2012. We got up at 4am and walked up into the nearby heath to get a good low horizon. There was a stubborn low bank of cloud over the Sun which did not move until nearly the end. Mrs Stu kept encouraging me to stay, and sure enough before 3rd contact we got a lovely view in a break in the clouds through my PST. I was amazed how big Venus appeared, and grateful for the chance to see this once (or twice!) in a lifetime event.

Next up is Asteroid 2014 JO25, thread below has my report on it, but it was fun to observe and track under not always ideal conditions weather and kit wise.

SN2014J was a supernova in M82 back in 2014. It wasn't that hard to see with a small scope under reasonable conditions or with larger scopes under poor conditions, but I observed from home (mag 18.5 skies) with an old Televue Genesis 4" scope. It was challenging enough to find M82, but I got the SN with averted vision. Pretty tough observation and very rewarding. I enjoy pushing my self and kit like this; to me finding something like this in a small scope under LP is just as rewarding as finding a faint galaxy in a big dob under ideal conditions. A night or so later I observed it using a 12" dob and had a much better, but far less memorable view if that makes sense?

The lunar eclipse in 2015 was a beautiful clear night and I remember staying up all night, observing from 11pm through until 5am ish when it got too low. I also then picked up Jupiter and followed in through until it was full daylight. Great fun.

Last memory is not a single event but the four nights I spent at the SGL10 star party. Remarkably we had four clear nights, two of them with decent transparency. I had a 16" Sumerian Canopus scope with Push To on it, and had a wonderful time observing over 60 galaxies including my first views of Markarian's Chain. I saw more in that weekend in terms of deep sky objects than had in all my previous years of observing!

The other bonus was the partial solar eclipse which we observed as a group at a nearby site, we had beautiful clear skies unlike most of the country, and despite not being a full eclipse, you could really see the change in light. I had both white light and Ha scopes to view with and found it an amazing experience. All in all a fabulous weekend with some great friends from SGL.

I'm attaching some pics of the eclipses and the scopes at SGL10.

Thanks Stu, it sure is a great thread and that is due to all the contributions everyone has made. Its been a real joy to read all about everyone's experience at the eye piece. You can really get a sense of the passion everyone has on here for this great hobby. It inspires you to get out there and enjoy the views! Thanks for your input, you certainly sound like you have some special memories from the eye piece!

 

Baz