Feline astronomy.

[tornado33]

Hi
While talking to fellow IIS member schrodingersCat at the NAS viewing night earlier tonight, about her looking for a loving home for a cat she has it reminded me of some feline encounters I have when doing my astrophotography. Lately the neighbours persian cat "Fluffy" positions himself nest to the telescope mount when he sees me setting it up. he is a people loving cat always wanting to be around humans. So when he sees my scope he knows I will be there for a while.

A few nights back as I was guiding images, Fluffy was at my feet looking up, so I called him up and onto ly lap he jumped. It was a cold night and Id not yet put on my Freezer suit, so fluffie's warmpth was appreciated :) After mum brought me a cuppa I had to get up to have it, after I sat down with fluffy back on the ground, plop, this time the neighbours other cat "Sapphire" a mega energetic part Siamese had landed on my lap, and decided the cables hanging from the scope would make good playthings

Where was my own cat "Joey"? All 7 Kg's of him was inside next to the heater. In winter he spends most of his time inside. It didnt take the neighbours cats long to discover we are all cat lovers and spend as much time with us now hehehe.
Scott

[renormalised]

It'll get to be a worry when they start looking through the eyepieces!!!:eyepop::P:D

[Ric]

They make great lap warmers don't they Scott.:thumbsup:

Our cat tends to make short appearances in the winter, much prefers to be under the rug on the waterbed.:lol:

Cheers

[Glenhuon]

Our 3 cats are always around when I'm at the scope, Bridgid at my feet Spock prowling somewhere nearby and Kitty playing under the tarpaulins. Kitty is "Inspector of Works". Has to check out what I'm doing in the shed or garden and give her approval. :)

Bill

[TrevorW]

:rundog:Dogs rule, cats drool:D:D:D

[Jen]

Awww how cute :) my kitty likes to scare me by pouncing on any bug that moves around the back yard :shrug:
(jen hates bugs)

[Matty P]

:thumbsup:

My dog, who we have nicknamed "Astro Dog". Always sits by my side while I am outside with the scope. He loves it, he doesn't move until I move.

Sometimes when it gets really cold he usually stays inside next to the heater but still keeps an eye on me. :lol:

I sometimes think he is some kind of Cat Dog. :)

[jjjnettie]

If I get up from my observing seat, my cat will jump up onto it and keep it warm for me. If I use the Dob, she'll curl up in the rocker box. Otherwise she'll be prowling around the shed hunting for mice.
The blasted dog, Canis Major, is not in my good books at all at the moment.
The other night, after a spending a lengthy time setting up the scope and getting it perfectly aligned and tracking superbly, he came blundering between the mount and lappy, a pulled out the lead attached to the mount. Everything ground to a halt. I was only 5 images into the session.
I was not impressed. It was 10 minutes before I could say anything but the F word.

[TrevorW]

I was only 5 images into the session.
I was not impressed. It was 10 minutes before I could say anything but the F word.[/quote]

Ah but he still loves you!!!

:D:D

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol: bad dog... bad dog......
:mad:

[AstralTraveller]

Years ago someone had an interesting time with a cat during a grazing occultation. Doing grazes involves setting up a number of scopes across the path of the graze. In those pre-GPS days we often observed from suburbia so we could get accurate positions from the topo maps. We used the (now defunct) VNG time signal (on, as I still remember, 4.5, 7.5 and 12MHz) and a tape recorder. The observer would call 'gone' and 'back' as the events occurred.

This night a bloke was observing from a street corner using a 60mm refractor on a small tripod. Being moderately tall he had to bend over to get down to the eyepiece and so was standing with one leg forward and one back and his legs slightly apart. The time had come when the first disappearance was about to happen and he had his eye glued to the eyepiece, when he was visited by a very friendly cat. It was the type that will stretch up, put its front paws on you and dig its claws in. So it proceeded to stretch up the inside of his leg and dig the claws in very close to some very delicate parts of his anatomy :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::eek::eek:.

The tape was priceless. The commentary was something like: "Got the star .... still there ... still there .... ahh ohh *%$#@*!! .. %$@#! cat ..(2 second gap) GONE!... (rest of graze)" Of course we had to ask whether it was the star or something else that was gone :D. Yes, everything was fine :thumbsup:. Oh the trials and tribulations of advancing the cause of science.

[tornado33]

Yes all good fun indeed.
An update. A few nights later while doing another imaging session Fluffy was again keeping my lap warm when Sapphire the other cat, not knowing my lap was already occupied jumped up, landing on top of a surprised, and angry fluffy, who hissed and snarled at Sapphire, so Id gone from camly imaging, to having a near cat fight on my lap. I managed to keep guiding ok during the whole thing hehehehe.
Scott

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol: Sounds like you have some great entertainment while your out in the dark Scott :lol::P

[MrB]

Wish I could share a cat/astro story, unfortunately I live in a rental and the Cats live with my mum. Seems all the neighbours have dogs.

I do have a cold night + warm animal story though.
Was fishing with my father many years ago on a freezing cold night. We were both sitting at the end of a jetty chatting about this and that when we were visited by an Alaskan Malamute(or Husky, not sure) with a full coat. We looked around to spot the owner that had taken him out for a walk but could see no-one.
We gave him a couple of our catch and he then curled up behind us, leaning into our backs... where he stayed for a couple of hours. When we were done we gave him a couple more of our catch and we all headed in different directions. Made for a nice warm evening!

[schrodingersCat]

hahahah Scott! both Schrodinger and Mobius try to set up camp on my lap and my lap isnt THAT big and its just a circus. He is so clumsy that Mobius, sometimes he starts falling off my lap and without thinking uses his claws to stop himself falling, but its all cupboard love, when i turn on the heater, they both jump down and sit infront of that instead. I dont know why they fight me for it, dont they realize im higher in the predatorial chain? (onbviously Im not!!)