Favourite Astronomical Memories

[RichardJBartlett]

I was inspired to create this thread after reading Celeste's post about objects that make you go "wow!"

So I began to wonder what your favourite astronomical memories are.

For example, I have several:

1. Christmas Eve 1977 - I was six and Star Wars had just been released in the UK. My brother had seen it but I hadn't, but he'd gotten into astronomy (slightly) and knew about the stars. My first memory of astronomy is of that Christmas Eve - we were on the way to pick up my great-aunt, who lived near Bury St Edmunds. We lived in Luton, so it was a bit of a drive! I remember it was a crystal clear night - literally. There were ice crystals forming a halo around the full moon. Jupiter was in Taurus. My brother pointed out these things and then showed me Orion. This was how I got into astronomoy. I remember it so clearly and yet, for years, I didn't know how old I had been at the time. It wasn't until the late 80's when I got an astronomy program for my Atari ST that I realized I was only six at the time!
   
2. Autumn/Winter 1981 - leaning out of my bedroom window, aged 10, and staring at the Pleiades with my Dad's binoculars LOL It was the first time I'd seen them "close up" and I was spell-bound. I used to do this while listening to the radio and I remember songs like "Souvenir" (appropriately) by OMD, "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, "Under Your Thumb" by Godley & Creme and "Open Your Heart" by the Human League (A LOT of my personal memories are tied to music)
   
3. See the Dumbbell Nebula for the first time - Oklahoma, 2006. I'd never been able to see it from the light-polluted skies of England so I was thrilled to see it from OK. I was spoilt in Okie LOL When we moved to Louisville I was bitterly disappointed (but not altogether surprised) by the lack of stars... *sigh*
   

[Nexus 6]

For me Richard, it is a impression of the night sky before I was interested in astronomy. I have said this before on the forum on similair threads. In 1991 I went to cornwall to a remote farm on Bodmin Moor. The night sky was truely amazing virtually no lp. A friend pointed out the Milky Way, what a sight!. I have never forgotten that holiday for that reason. Fantastic.

Alan

[Demonperformer]

Growing up in the 1960s, I was really into the Apollo missions. I guess my top moment would have to be being allowed to stay up and watch the moon landing

[Mr Spock]

Yes, staying up all night to watch the moon landings was something.

My first look out of the bedroom window at the stars was another. For some reason I imagined a huge number of stars in the bit hidden by the house. I was probably about 9 or 10, and the astro bug bit right there.

[brantuk]

Watching the moon landings live, seeing saturn for the first time in a scope, standing next to the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank as it moved round on it's tracks, watching the ISS going over, seeing my first "shooting stars", visiting the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, discovering clusters and nebs etc, loads of stuff really.

[Dai150PL]

For me, it was seeing Hubbles first images.

[nightfisher]

my most memorable astro thing was probably observing the pleiades through my old st80

[russ]

Mine are:

Seeing my first scope on Christmas morning 1983 - a 50mm Tasco refractor. Excited doesn't come close to how i felt. Didn't have to use those darn Swift 7x50 binos anymore.

Seeing Saturn for the first time. I had all the family out and all the neighbours. Was on cloud 9 for weeks after.

Seeing Jupiter, the equatorial belts and Galileon moons for the first time - ditto above.

Joining my first society in 1986 and seeing a proper big scope in a dome for the first time - 20" reflector belonging to Hampshire AG. Although as it turned out i preferred the 7" Cooke refractor in the other dome.

Meeting Sir Patrick in 1988(?) at the Portsmouth Guildhall .... i got stage struck and couldn't get a single word out. He must of thought i was a mute. But great to meet him and listen to his talk.

Attending my first star party in 1987 - Astrocamp, Ashdown Forest - brilliant!!!!

I think i had better stop there because there's loads more.

[Gweedo]

Seeing a fireball overhead in North Yorkshire - completely unexpected and by pure chance I was looking in the right direction at the time. Seeing the aurora borelalis in Canada whilst out on the priarie and seeing the transit of Venus in 2004. That's prettu much it but I hope that there's more to come!

[george7378]

For me, it would have to be:

- Laying on a sun lounger on the beach of one of the desert islands of the Maldives well into the night, watching for shooting stars and staring at the Miky Way going right overhead and setting into the sea, with the stars reflecting in the water making it feel as if I was just laying in a sphere of stars.

- Walking under the dark skies of Florida with my family and talking about whether anyone is looking down at us.

- Regularly enjoying our dark skies with my Dad (he works in the space industry) and talking about the universe and space travel with him.

- Watching the launch of Mars Odyssey in 2001 live.

- Sneakily staying up during the school holidays this Summer to lean out of the window to see the Cygnus Rift and the thousands of stars above the silent field.

- Seeing dust lanes crossing the Andromeda Galaxy and watching all the other amazing sights through my scope.

- Watching the ISS zoom over for the first time after only seeing satellites in books.

- Many more I probably can't recall now.

I really wish I'd seen the Moon landings!

[dlp]

Summer of '69 (no I'm not going to break in to song!). Youth club camp, Bulmer's Estate, extreme West on Anglesey. A bunch of us prostrate round a huge rock just watching the sky for hours. Saw my first ever satellite (no idea what it was) and loads of meteors, but my abiding memory was the sheer blackness of the sky and the billions of stars. Heaven.

David

[Steve 1962]

Seeing Jupiter and Saturn for the first time through a scope.

Stepping outside my front door in 1997 and being confronted with Hale-Bopp.

Watching the Space Shuttle launch in August 2009 on Nasa TV, then going outside and seeing it go overhead in formation with its external tank after only a quarter of an hour. (You could tell the difference between the red tank and the white orbiter) - I was b****y impressed but the wife wasn't so keen when I woke her up to tell her about it.

Trying to image Comet Hartley with my neighbour Charles and realising that we could detect its movement against the background stars.

The first time I saw a GEM slew using GoTo and the first time I used Remote Desktop on a PC in the house to control a PC attached to a scope in the garden.

[Mark at Beaufort]

It has to be the transit of Venus in 2004 from start to finish. When Venus first touch the edge of the Sun I thought that no one alive on the earth had ever witnessed this event. (there might have been a number of others thinking the same thing of course but!!).

We viewed the transit at a High School in Herefordshire with a live link to New Zealand. The event was professional recorded which was then voted by the European Space Agency in Paris as the best video of the event throughout the world. I was interviewed and it is a nice memory to look back upon.

Mark

[John]

1. The moon landings - I was 9 when Neil and Buzz walked on the surface of the moon.

2. Seeing Saturn for the 1st time with my 60mm refractor at 3 am about 30 years ago.

3. Standing with my family on the beach at Marazion as the total eclipse unfolded. Yes, it was mostly cloudy but the atmosphere as it went dark and the lights came on on St Michaels Mount was magical.

4. Showing my children and their friends the transit of Venus by projecting it with my 60mm refractor in 2004.

5. Sharing an evenings observing with SGL friends at the SGL4 star party last year - this session included seeing a mag 12 supernova in a faint Ursa Major galaxy and seeing clear spiral structure in M51.

6. Spending a few minutes looking through a marvelous 20" David Lukehurst dobsonian at this years SGL star party and seeing M51 and M13 as I've never seen them before.

Actually just recalling these moments is re-charging my enthusiasm for the hobby again

[Bodkin]

Recognising my first constellations using a simple star map when I was 11, lying down in the Provence countryside watching the Perseids with friends and the 1999 solar eclipse. I have realised that my best astronomical memories do not include the use of any equipment, but do include sharing the experience with family and friends.

[kris h]

I remember my dad was talking to my then neighbour he was into astronomy and my dad said come and have a look at this it looked like a fireball it was moving very fast i think the year was 97 or 98 not sure but ive always remembered that moment and wondered what it was i saw that night

[perrin6]

Observing the 'Hale-bopp' comet impact scars on Jupiter (not sure when). I had to drag my 8 inch homemade dob up a ladder onto the shed roof to see them as it was too low to see from down below. The roof is corrugated so it was awkward to walk on & I was a bit trepidatious as to whether it would take my weight - luckily the council made quality-built stuff. I was so excited I went and invited a non-astro-minded neighbour over to look at it so the roof took both our weights at the same time. It probably wasn't a wise risk to take but turned out OK.

Planning and building telescopes which it was economical to do up to a few years ago. Head full of dreams of what I'd see and marvel that it was possible to see galaxies and planets with something hand-made (OK I didnt make the optics, although I did refigure the 13 inch).

[JB80]

1. Seeing the huge comet McNaught in 2007, it's hard to imagine seeing a more spectacular naked eye sight ever.

Comet McNaught - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. First time I saw Jupiter through my scope, I still can't get enough.

3. Same goes for the Moon to be honest.

4. Climbing on the roof of my old place with a radio and a 6 pack of stout to watch Leonids one year and then waking up on the roof all sunburnt the following mid morning. Who knows what the neighbours must of thought.

5. Being woken up as a young child whilst camping at some ridiculous hour so I could see Halley's comet, I remember how small it seemed and how unimpressed I was as a 6 y.o, the frosties and bacon sandwich were good though.

[RichardJBartlett]

Some great stories there... I wish I could have seen the Moon landings...

I do also remember Shoemaker-Levy smacking into Jupiter - that was a very eventful week. It was 1994 and it happened during the 25th anniversary of the Moon landing. Lots of shows on Auntie Beeb about both.

I also remember the "star-b-q"'s the Luton Astronomical Society used to have - we would eat, look at the stars and then lie on the sun loungers looking out for the Persieds. Saw Neptune for the first time at one of those

[Astro_Baby]

The moon landing is the big one I suppose. I was 11 and in hospital but I had followed the whole thing, knew everything there was to know about rockets and the mission. Watched everything on tv, read every book I could find.

I was taken I'll on the night of the landing and had to be taken to hospital. I kicked up such a fuss the nurses let me sit in the geriatric ward whe there was a television to watch it all. The landing was amazing but what has left it's biggest impression on me was the faces of the oldsters around me.

Next up would be an early serious boyfriend buying me my first (half) decent telescope around 1978, it was a non name 4.5 reflector on an eq. It cost a ton back then and was the best scope I had for ages. He set it up on a beach and arranged a champagne picnic under the summer stars. Say aaaahhhhhh at this point

Final one would be seeing Saturn fir the first time in a long time 3 years ago with my Skywatcher 130 when I returned to the hobby.

[Martin Whitaker]

Well, has to be lying on my drive with some of my primary school mates and seeing my first shooting star, watching the moon landing on tv, having my primary teacher send off to NASA for astronaut photos and actually recieving them, getting my first scope 8 years ago and finding Saturn for the first time and showing wife kids and my dad,seeing Jupiter for first time in new cpc 6 weeks ago and hope many more to come.

[Nick P]

Like many others the 1969 moon landing was the most memorable event, not only for the landing itself but all the accompanying media coverage which raised the public consciousness of space travel and space itself. And of course 'Sky at Night' with Sir Patrick - always a treat to be allowed to stay up and watch.

The most memorable observational event would have to be Saturn and Uranus the first time through a 6 inch refractor and the Orion nebula. Another great event was watching a transit of Mercury across the sun by projecting the image through a refractor onto a piece of white paper - really grabbed my imagination watching the black dot of mercury moving.

[lukebl]

The 1999 total solar eclipse from a field near Dieppe was fantastic.

I'd been waiting for it since I was a kid in the 70s (never thought I'd live to see it, and I'm still here), and correctly reckoned that northern France was a better bet than Cornwall weather-wise. My wife, baby son and I found a nice open spot next to a field and waited for the clouds to clear. A few others, including some Dutch and local French folk joined us. I remember the sense of anticiptation as the shadow cone swept across the land towards us and the clouds miraculously cleared for totality. Then there was an eerie silence during totality, punctuated by a quail calling in the field next to us as totality ended. Unforgettable.

My son, now 11, is bored to death with the tale of my childhood dream to see this eclipse and can't understand what the fuss is about. 'Durr. It's only the moon crossing the sun, and it only lasted a couple of minutes. And it happens somewhere nearly every year. So what'. Maybe he'll have some respect one day, and realise he witnessed a rare and wonderful event even though he was to small ro remember!

[callisto]

Well, for me.....

Seeing the milky way for the first time whilst on a camping holiday in Cornwall.

While night fishing on the North East coast, the reddest fireball I have ever seen streaked across the sky, it lasted that long, myself, my dad and my uncle all took turns looking at it through binoculars.

Watching a rock concert at the Hollywood Bowl with comet Hale-Bopp just hanging there overhead.

Last but not least, looking at Saturn for the first time through my 60mm tasco frac :)

[Ags]

I have a little star guide I used as a kid. The book is older than me, and I was looking at the pictures in the book long before I understood what planets or stars were, probably before I was able to read. When I look through that book now, I recall a little of the wonder I felt as a child discovering the world of astronomy.