Airplane flies past Moon!

[Space Beagle]

Last night at about 8:45pm:

Anyone else seen an aircraft fly past the moon while observing it?!

It was quite a sight - wish i'd had the chance to take a photograph!

I was looking at the Moon through my 200P with a 9mm nagler at the time, so it was quite a close up view, I suppose it took the plane about 1 or 2 seconds to go past my field of view. You could clearly see the contrails behind it too!

Doc

[Luke]

I didn't catch an airplane, there seemed to be a few birds or bats though!

[Jdavies]

I would love to see either, would be well cool.

[CharmQuark]

I would love to see either, would be well cool.

It really would be saying that i have not even got a telescope yet can't wait till i have though

[Jdavies]

What are you getting

[Bigwings]

Gosh that must be a hell of an altitude record.....where is it going...Mars?

[Jdavies]

lol

[CharmQuark]

What are you getting

I really have no idea, i am just starting out in all this, was thnking about doing a post for advice on what would be a good one to start out with

[Jdavies]

what is your price range

[CharmQuark]

what is your price range

nothing to expensive, would like one for about £150

[Jdavies]

you may have to spend more than that to get a wirth while scope, what do you aim to look at??

[CharmQuark]

you may have to spend more than that to get a wirth while scope, what do you aim to look at??

Want it for the moon and Jupiter really

[cathalferris]

It can be quite a fright to have a large silent dark shape block off the sight to the moon!

I'm currently staying in a house in the direct flightpath to the regional airport, and every evening the regional airline brings its planes home.

When looking at something and concentrating hard for a while, I can tend to ignore what's going on around, and either there's a suddenly large twin turboprop 300ft overhead overhead with the associated huge noise, or I get things blotted out unexpectedly if I'm lucky enough to be looking through the scope when the plane passes through the field of view..

Having said that I quite like looking at planes in daytime, especially now I have motor controls on the scope.

Having a plane pass through the field of view if it's close is more of a shock than having a bright satellite whizz through the field of view.

[JB80]

I live right near an airport, a few times I have seen this close to happening. I hope one day to be able to capture it. I don't think it will be too hard if you see the plane coming first.

[yeti monster]

I caught a fly past with my webcam whilst doing the crescent moon last time home, I saw it on the laptop and fair cried wooo!

A shame it was set at 10 fps, which meant that I couldn't get a good image to place over the mosaic I did (still meaning to finish.......)

Astro :: Lunar pass video by yeti-monster - Photobucket

[Luke]

Why they always have to fly *right over* the moon is beyond me.

[george7378]

I've seen some planes pass in front of the Moon too, and some bright satellites. They can really make you jump when they go charging across while you're really concentrating on the details. This also reminds me of a good APOD I saw recently:

APOD: 2010 September 29 - An Airplane in Front of the Moon

Also, if you're looking for a starter scope, I would recommend the Sky-Watcher 130 - I have had mine for about a year, and it lets you see the Moon and Jupiter (plus moons and cloud belts/red spot) and a whole host of DSOs and other planets. They are about £150 new.

[yeti monster]

You can pick up a decent enough used scope for 150 earth quids on fleabay, there's dozens on offer all the time, just bide your time, find a localish one and go check it out.

[Pete Presland]

seen a few birds over the years