How safe do you feel?

[900SL]

14 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

For personal safety you can’t beat a 6 cell maglite 😉

Aahh, a fellow believer in the old Zulu adage:  'talk quietly, carry a big stick'

[Moonshed]

My wife and I spent a week on holiday in Manhattan, New York, and then spent a week in a log cabin up in the Catskill Mountains. We were literally miles from any towns or villages and the night sky must have been Bortle 1.  I had no ‘scope with me but was able to bring my binoculars. I woke up particularly early one morning, around 5 am, and decided to sneak out with my bins and spend a while star gazing. I set off up the narrow animal track to an area of high ground that I knew afforded an excellent view of the sky. It was pitch black and I didn’t have a torch, forgot to pack one, so it was difficult to find my way. I had only gone a 100 yards and suddenly the ground erupted under my feet, knocking me to the floor, and a huge stag burst up from his sleeping place and careered away at a rate of knots. My heart was pounding like a steam piston and it took me a good while to figure out what the hell had happened. I was scared half to death! That is the first, and without a doubt, the last, time I stepped onto a deer!
I don’t recall anything about the intended star gazing!

Edited March 5, 2023 by Moonshed

[kbrown]

Before I had the "luxury" of a suburb (Bortle 8/9) back garden, I used to drive out to a number of dark(er) sky locations outside London with my kit. I tried to find places I could easily set it up right next to my car. I don't know why but almost every time I felt like I was doing something semi-criminal by doing so. Maybe it's because I come from Finland where we have this thing called (for the lack of better translation) "freedom to roam" written in law which for example grants permission to wild camp nearly anywhere given you're not going to do any damage to the nature. In the UK you generally don't have that...

Anyway, I found a good few places I used to go to regularly. Most of the time all of them were okay but each one of them had their own "weird encounters" too. In one place it was drunken youth and boy racers, in another it was creepy individuals (probably "doggers") loitering around. In one place I almost always got a visit from the local police wondering what I was up to. Probably because of the relative proximity of an airport and/or a nuclear power plant.

It's a shame it's so difficult to find a place you could just enjoy the night sky without the extra stress. Maybe we as a community should try to organise something? Buy an abandoned farm somewhere rural and just dedicate it to astronomy....

[JOC]

16 hours ago, Moonshed said:

That is the first, and without a doubt, the last, time I stepped onto a deer!
I don’t recall anything about the intended star gazing!

Not star-gazing, but that reminds me as a child standing very quietly in an inlet between rocks as the tide came in around my legs with a large net waiting for shrimps to float past for dinner that night.  You get very locked into concentrating on the surrounding water and switch off to anything else when shrimping.  I think years were knocked off my life when the ground suddenly erupted under my foot after I'd been standing still and quiet for a good while, and a large flat fish the size of a dinner plate disappeared rapidly off into the depths!

[allworlds]

I gave up on one possible observing site due to feeling unsafe. It was supposed to be closed to cars at night, but it wasn't, and quite a few people were parking up. And perhaps it was just my paranoia but I thought I was being followed while driving away. Not returned since.

I find going on my bicycle can be better. The scope and tripod are heavy and awkward to carry on foot away from a car parking space which led to me setting up too close. But I can wheel the bike right to where I'm observing from.

In general I feel safest if somewhere is either dead remote and quiet so nobody is likely to go there looking to cause trouble, or reasonably busy so that nobody can cause trouble without risking getting seen. (But busy conflicts with dark adaptation). It's the "in-between" situations where it's me and maybe one or two other parked cars or groups, that's what makes me feel unsafe.

[Stu1smartcookie]

On 28/02/2023 at 16:54, Franklin said:

Get one of these.

 

Yeah , you could certainly give someone a whack with that frac  ... oh and the dog helps of course 

 

[Moonshed]

37 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Yeah , you could certainly give someone a whack with that frac  ... oh and the dog helps of course 

That is funny I have to admit 😂 but I’m the sort of idiot that would protect my dog first and foremost, 🤓 but then a Bichon Maltese standing 10” high isn’t much of a deterrent anyway.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Moonshed

[Stu1smartcookie]

5 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

That is funny I have to admit 😂 but I’m the sort of idiot that would protect my dog first and foremost, 🤓 but then a Bichon Maltese standing 10” high isn’t much of a deterrent anyway.

 

 

a real mean beast !

[Ratlet]

5 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

That is funny I have to admit 😂 but I’m the sort of idiot that would protect my dog first and foremost, 🤓 but then a Bichon Maltese standing 10” high isn’t much of a deterrent anyway.

 

 

Would be absolutely devastating if you got attacked by Achilles.

[Moonshed]

5 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

a real mean beast !

You may scoff but if you so much as think about taking her toy bone away you will find yourself staring into the cold, dark, eyes of a lethal killing machine. You may possibly survive if you quickly offer a tummy rub.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Moonshed
Improvement to the space time continuum

[jjohnson3803]

Somebody who's ex-military said the key is for you to own the night and not let the night own you.  I suspect that's a lot easier to do psychologically when you're wearing body armor and actively hunting your opponent.

I have set up at remote sites next to my car with the window down in case I have to dive in.  Not quite sure how that would work though given my age and (lack of) athletic ability.  Maybe donkeys are the key.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by jjohnson3803

[Carbon Brush]

Being nervous of the dark, are we like the 'muggles' or 'council street light folk' who insist on 24/7 daylight?

I can remember once meeting someone while walking my dog. This guy had his dog.
My youthful eyes and ears allowed me to work out he was someone I recognised from my village.
He was somewhat older and had no idea who who I was. But we (dogs included) enjoyed the walk and talk. Neither felt the need to run for a street light.

Another time I was among a few people waiting for a clubhouse to be unlocked for a (not astro) meeting. We introduced ourselves in the pitch dark and chatted away.

More recently on an early morning, still quite dark, run through fields near my village, I disturbed around a hundred snoozing geese.
They were deafening as they all flew off! Yes I continued the run, bothered only by not being able to see the fround very well for risk of a twisted ankle!

 

[Moonshed]

39 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

I can remember once meeting someone while walking my dog. This guy had his dog.

That reminds me of a similar dark night situation where I was walking my dog along a country back lane that was so dark I could not see a thing. My dog however knew the way and led me along the path tugging on her lead, taking me down the lane as though it were broad daylight. After a few minutes we met another dog walker coming the other way and we stopped awhile and chatted, even though neither one of us could see the other. After we had parted company and continued our walk It made me realise how brave I felt simply  because I had my dog with me. I would have been very concerned meeting that other dog walker if I had not had my dog with me, in fact I would have been very afraid! It didn’t matter that my gorgeous border collie was as daft as they come, if she felt a stranger was a threat she would stand between them and me and growl in a very menacing way, bless her.

So there’s your answer, when you go to a lonely, distant location to do some observing, take your dog with you, providing of course it’s big enough to have a frightening bark. If like me you now have two silly little Bichon Maltese, stay in your garden 😃.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Moonshed
Spelling error

[bemak187]

I do prefer observing from either my own garden or somewhere I am not going to bump into anyone.  Not so much a safety thing but I find if anyone sees you observing it ends up with a million questions about what you are doing and generally draws unwanted attention etc.

[Carpy]

I'm quite lucky because I am in a fishing club that has a water that you access from a locked gate and a 1/4mile track. Its in bortle 4 so slightly better seeing than the garden (bortle 5).

 

[ollypenrice]

I think one problem, certainly in the UK, is that sites which attract the car-bound astronomer will also attract car-bound people of questionable intent. Somewhere to park and nobody around make common ground between the two.  When I go back to Derbyshire I see that, on most country roads, a pull-in where a car can stop will have a few lager cans lying on the ground. Depressing but true. People who drive out to drink lager and who throw their tins on the ground, are not people I want to meet in the dead of night (or anywhere else for that matter.)

Olly

[Samop]

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this discussion... all a bit academic at the mo in the SouthEast of England as there hasn't been a clear night since I bought my 'scope, 6 weeks ago.

Most people seem to agree with my sentiment, that unless you're really out in the sticks a perfect astronomy site is also a pretty good place  for "undesirables".

I don't have a dog and my cat is a bit too self-centred to be helpful. Where I live (west-ish Essex, UK) there are however a lot of narrow out-of-the-way lanes, many leading up to farms,  so I do think they may work...  perhaps a late night drive around to scout them out.

[maw lod qan]

I've never worried much in the dark. Growing up in the country there were not many night lights, and we also camped a lot.

I worry more when I'm in the Gulf or the Ocean.

I've watched Jaws way to many times!

"We're going to need a bigger boat!"

[Elp]

I think it would be wise to go with at least one other person if available. My last venture off site fumbling in the dark, of all probability my thumb touched a bee full on (the last thing you'd expect to see out so early in the cold) which was crawling over my accessories bag whilst I was setting up. It was an angry bee at that. I've never been stung, but had I had been and had an allergic reaction, I was on my own in the middle of nowhere where no one could hear me shout, and a few minutes drive from any populated road, so good to have company in case.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

3 hours ago, Elp said:

my thumb touched a bee full on

There's something I find very amusing about this statement 😆

[Ratlet]

21 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

There's something I find very amusing about this statement 😆

You're a bridge builder all your life...

[Elp]

1 hour ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

There's something I find very amusing about this statement 😆

I wouldn't be laughing had I bee-n stung.

[900SL]

On 24/04/2023 at 10:55, ollypenrice said:

When I go back to Derbyshire I see that, on most country roads, a pull-in where a car can stop will have a few lager cans lying on the ground. Depressing but true. People who drive out to drink lager and who throw their tins on the ground, are not people I want to meet in the dead of night (or anywhere else for that matter.)

Olly

Don't worry, they are probably depressed astronomers drinking under cloudy skies, Ollie

[Guest]

I feel perfectly safe when i am out observing, but i will admit i dont really have to leave my property.  I live in the middle of nowhere, I can't be approached by anyone without me knowing it, so people aren't an issue.  What is an issue.... Racoons, skunks and coyotes.  I am not afraid of them, but a skunk wondering into the observation area at night is going to cause a stink. 

[Lunuar Mike]

Hello to you all. I usually look at the stars from my parents back yard its a quiet semi dark site. I have a few places I go to observe stars that have been really safe so far . Usually when venturing out to a distant site I always bring a friend or two . I just feel safer with a buddy tagging along and once the scope has been acclimated and the seeing is good and fun for all in attendance. Yup I use the buddy system when I go to an away site, but at home I observe alone usually . Clear skies , Michael