Scary astro dark-site stories.

[bloodhound31]

I was conducting an all-night time lapse in the middle of the mountains, miles from anyone and where no-one knew where I was.

I was surrounded by dead trees with pure-black shadow all around me.

About 2:30 in the morning, I started hearing...and my neck hairs are going up as I write this.... a multitude of children whispering and giggling.....

Talk about freak out. I am most comfortable in the bush and always feel safe. Not this night. I wrestled with my powers of logic for around half an hour, debating whether I should pack up and go home. The sound was not in my head. It was very faint, but definitely real. Of course I was thinking, "Baz, don't be a pansy. Of course there is a perfectly logical explanation for the sound". :sadeyes:

All of a sudden, without warning.... :eyepop: AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

A breeze blew through at ground level and I heard all the dead.....

....sticks on the trees rubbing together. They squeaked, squealed and chattered in a cacophony of wooden voices, sounding EXACTLY like children whispering and giggling.

I went home later to have a quiet heart-attack. :P


Who else has a scary astro dark-site story where your imagination has reduced you to a whimpering four-year-old curled up in the foetal position?

[TrevorW]

Were you far from Hanging Rock :question:

and you said you don't have a sense of humour :shrug:

the mind plays tricks on us in the dead of night when we are alone in wide open spaces, humans are often not good at this :screwy:

somehow the theme from "Twilight Zone" just popped into my head :thumbsup:

[bloodhound31]

Nothing is funny. Except maybe for clown farts. They smell funny.

[mental4astro]

My first night up at a dark site near Katoomba with a few other fellows had tiny insectiverous bats fluttering around us as they chased the mozzies we attracted. An hour into the session all was quiet and everyone busy with their thing, when one of these nocturnal hunters flew right under my nose - in the dim light of the evening I saw a black shadow shoot past my eyes and felt the flutter of the beating wings on my face!

I felt my backbone decalcify instantly! Bloody thing is only the size of a matchbox, but, man, did it spook me, :lol:.

[MortonH]

Before I came to Oz I observed at a small national park outside Glasgow. One night I kept hearing shuffling and rustling noises around me. At one point they seemed to come from near a picnic table and I thought I saw a black shape moving around, much too big for a cat or fox. It disappeared and for a few seconds I thought it had gone, until something touched my hand...

...and I found the park ranger's black labrador licking my fingers and wanting to play!

Morton

[jjjnettie]

Belanglo State Forest, the site of some of the most horrific murders in Australian history.
Earlier that day we'd found a knife on the ground while bush walking off track. That was chilling in itself.
That night, while outside, on my own, (everyone else was in the cabin) I heard some thing walking on leaves and breaking twigs. Something quite heavy.
I froze.....squeezing my eyes shut, trying to make my night vision come to me faster.
I can hear it coming closer. Couldn't be a possum, it was too heavy.
All I could think of was that damn knife and who had dropped it. visions of some poor person running away, being chased by the owner of the knife.
It was really close now.....
then I heard the sound of grass being pulled and chewed. My night vision had improved enough for me to see that it was a Wombat, only a few feet away from me. :rofl:

I can't find the pics I took of the wombat, but I present exhibit A...the knife.

[bloodhound31]

Oh MAN! I was wondering where I had dropped that....... :P

[brian nordstrom]

:) The firth of Thames , Coramandel , NZ . 1987 :eyepop:
Way after midnight , perfect dark and dark adapted eyesight ,, zero vision out side of whats in the eyepiece .
Sirius was casting a shadow ,,
No wombats in NZ , but we have the ' Coromandel Hairy Man ! '... man !!!
And my Darling heard HIM!, over there !!! She said !! :eyepop:.
I had been jiving her all night about Mad Mike . So ...
..... On with the Dolphin torch she did ! , gone was the night vision , and here be a possom ! ... ha ha ha
Had to laugh .
I'm sure that possom seen more than both of us before the blinding light hit him .
True story .:thumbsup:
Brian.
.

[Octane]

Ask Chris, that same guy got me, too! :)

H

[steve000]

Im never going outside again.

mums place has had foxes, wild dogs, snakes, various other things that are creepy in the night.. hearing sounds in the dead of night with a long run to the house really creeps you out.

In summer I have a habit of mowing from sunrise till around 7am.. It was a magic night and I was out till around 1am. went to bed for a hew hours of shuteye, woke again around 4am and went and mowed.. after about 30mins of mowing I ran over a large brown snake.. not 1 m from where I was all night! it could have been there next to me sleeping all freaking night!
the grass always is very low where I observe now.. just in case.

[ballaratdragons]

Here in Snake Valley the only sounds I hear close-by in the pitch black while observing are horses or sheep farting, and the sound of them walking on the grass.
Distant sounds are more chilling though as I sometimes hear Koalas and Possums growling and it sounds like a close-up wild dog.

Once, when living in Enfield (in the country south of Ballarat) I heard a sniffle right next to my ear. I turned fast towards the sound and hit noses with a Kangaroo smelling me and it scared the crappers out of both of us :eyepop:

But the worst stories I hear about are from the Americans I talk to nightly.
Many of them go out observing with Firearms!
One guys back fence of his property is on the Mexican Border and he sees the Mexicans running across his property atleast once a week, and at night whilst observing he can swear he hears them creeping around near him. He sees their footprints in the dirt the next day in the daylight :help:

and Lee who said he goes out to a nice quiet spot for the darker sky and has been shot at on several occasions!
Another one who got mugged while Imaging in a dark spot away from all population!

Another one (the one we worry about the most) is Carol, an elderly lady living on her own out in wilds of Montana with no neighbours within miles.
She often gets Bears while she is observing and has to rapidly pack up and lock herself inside with Shotgun in hand.
Lately she has had a Mountain Lion hanging around and she has a new little puppy to keep her company and she said that observing is a real scarey thing knowing the Lion is around and could get her puppy or her.

We have Spiders and snakes, Labradors and Kangaroos. They get Bears, Rattlers, Mountain Lions, Moose, Muggers and Mexican illegals :lol:

[astroron]

Not much has frightened me here in Auss except the odd Possum or bat screeching, but one time I was in North Carolina in the USA at a friends place up in them there hills of the Appalachian Range ,and was binocular observing the northern sky all on my own at around eleven o'clock at night on the edge of a forest when I heard twigs breaking and grass rustling, I ran down the hill as fast as my legs would carry me,even falling over a couple of times,couldn't get into the house quick enough and lock the door.
Next morning went back to the place where I had been the night before and saw Large Bear paw prints all over the place :eyepop:
When I told my friend who I was staying with, he said quite nonchalantly
Oh yes there are plenty of bears round here :mad2:

[ballaratdragons]

I'm sure Martin in South Africa could tell us what is must be like to be out observing and hear Lions creeping about :help: :P

[astroron]

Ken I am sure he could ;) all we have to worry about are a few snakes, Roos, Koala's and Bats and Dingoe's :rolleyes:
Cheers :thumbsup:

[MLyons]

The one night, while relaxing and settling down to a night of observing, I got a cold shiver down my spine which was a tell-tale sign that something was amiss.........

Then I realised......I forgot to put my jumper on.......

Anyways, once I had put on some warm clothing, I spent many hours wandering around the sky revisiting all my old favourites while I kept an ear out for the wild African night time sounds everyone is so familiar with...............you know, the screaming kids, the odd gunshot and............oh wait, wrong story.........I meant the giggling Hyenas, the Grunting Lions, the rustling of the bush as a lost ranger passes by in his Landcruiser.......and of course, the nagging missus......

Suddenly............a menacing hush befell the African plains.....even the crickets fell silent............. I all at once became aware of the fact that there was a seething, vicious, predator on the prowl in the dark African night closing in on me......I froze on the spot..........too afraid to move, lest I become the prey of the night.........I saw the ugly face, the intense gaze from fiery eyes, the steam from the nostrils like a Wildebeest on the run........then it happend.......

All I remember hearing was: "It's your turn to wash the dishes so you better get your lazy butt back here before you start playing with your bl&&$y toys and get your chores done. Why do I always have to do everything around here and pick up after you lazy, goodfernuthin' slobs....and by the way, don't forget to take out the garbage and your new little puppy dog has pooped in the passage so you'd better get some cleaning stuff and sort it out............I was traumatised.

Frankly, I'd prefer to get eaten by a real lion or trampled by an elephant....at least it'll only happen once and that'll be that.......

[ballaratdragons]

:rofl:

[GrahamL]

I didn't know the wife had family in Africa :shrug:

well its not really scary but while having a look with the binos
at 3.00 am at minnie waters a dingo did decide to howl at the night fairly close to where i was .

[Gem]

Two times I have been scared observing:
1. Near Singleton, NSW, when I was 12 or so. It was a dark site and I was with my brother (17?) and his 4" SCT. Suddenly a MASSIVE meteor flashes across the sky and breaks up in view. Seconds later a massive thunder clap. I was really scared, but minutes later (when I knew the Earth wasn't going end) it was really exciting.
2. At night in rural Zambia - very dark (no electricity in the district at the time). We had lost two chickens to army ants the week before (our neighbours lost 14 chickens to the ants). We had had a snake inside the house a few weeks prior that passed under my legs (my wife got it with a cricket bat), scorpions in the toilet every day (how did they get there??) and kanyenye were about (huntsmen size spiders that charge humans on site). Suddenly while observing I remembered all the things of the previous weeks and I started feeling things go up my legs when nothing was there.... so I left the darkest skies in the world (no electricity for 250km radius) and ran back to bed and tucked in the mozzie nets REALLY tight!!

[DavidTrap]

Dropbears? No one's mentioned the ferocious dropbears?

DT

[multiweb]

I had a possum growling in the dark at maybe 1m from me. I didn't know what it was at the time and it scared the hell out of me. Sounded like a wild cat or something much bigger. :scared:

The other one was a roo jumping in front of me in the dark while I was looking up the milky way. I must have startled it and it just bolted out of the bushes.

[icytailmark]

i had a nightmare last night thanks alot guys

[Ric]

Great stories every one. :thumbsup:

I've got most of the strange animal noise worked out these days but one night when it was very still I started to hear a pulsating hum (it's hard to describe the sound) :question:

I never heard this sound before and my mind was half expecting a close encounter of the third kind. :abduct:

It turned out to be the rotation of the blades from the wind farm about 25km away. Now I hear on a still night and I'm not so worried, would have preferred to meet ET though. :D

[jjjnettie]

I'm loving these stories. :)
Army ants...brrrr. Ever since I saw The Nun's Story I've been traumatised at the thought of them.

[Baddad]

We were out at Tinaroo Dam, Cairns hinterland. About 3 AM Dark after moon set. Snorts and grunts. LOUD. Coming from near the truck.:confused2:
Feral Pigs. I didn't know if they were dangerous. I froze. After what seemrd like an eternity, maybe a half hour they moved on.:help:

Dawn was approaching and I checked the area. They had been fossicking in the damp earth.:D

Here's the real scary story:
The Drop Bear, Thylarctos plummetus, is a large, arboreal, predatory marsupial related to the Koala.

There you go David: Dropbears? No one's mentioned the ferocious dropbears?;)

Have a look on this site: http://australianmuseum.net.au/Drop-Bear

Back in the 80's Aussie soldiers had the Yanks so convinced of Drop Bears that they would avoid walking under trees at night.
Their eyes glued to the sky.
(One way of getting the non believers to look up):lol::lol:

Cheers

[DavidU]

The Drop Bear, Thylarctos plummetus :lol:

[mishku]

I saw DavidU had posted, and was expecting to read:

"I was out observing with Bono, the Dalai Lama, Mick Jagger and Simon Le Bon, when Joe Satriani called and said he couldn't make it. It was cool though, because Carlos Santana came instead"

:lol:

[multiweb]

:lol: I remember running with my brother being chased by a mum wild boar and her flock of little ones. We were with kids playing soccer and kicked the ball in the wood nearby. She probably felt threatened and bolted out the bush. Man I never run that fast again. :)

[strongmanmike]

Hey was that in France in what was ancient Gaul like in Asterix? I loved those Boar feats at the end...and Obelix and his super human strength, part of the early longings and why I was so determined to become the World's Strongest Man...ah, I never quite realised that height of course but Obelix had a lot to do with how far I did get.

:D

[Barrykgerdes]

Gee

I could not think of anything more scary than Strongmanmike sneaking up while on me while gazing into the eyepiece of the scope to give me a big (bear) hug

Barry

[multiweb]

Man I grew up reading these books (and Tintin). Even before I could run. :lol: Did you fall in it too when you were little?

[bloodhound31]

Win! :lol::rofl:

[strongmanmike]

Wadd-a-ya mean :shrug: you loved it last time I did it :D

[strongmanmike]

Yep loved Tin Tin too (who'd a thought he'd be our leader many years later :lol:) a million blistering barnacles :thumbsup: no, no potions, just friggin hard training :sadeyes:

Mike

[bloodhound31]

Back on topic before I start handing out uppercuts...

[strongmanmike]

Sorry Bazza....Carbon Tax? :rofl:

[AstralTraveller]

I'm scared. :lol:

[stephenb]

I've had roo shooters tear over the hill towards us with spotlights and shotties at the ready near Lake Eppalock in the late 1980's.

[Astroman]

One night while observing about 60km East of Adelaide, it was quite a dark night and everything was sill. I was observing alone in a farmers paddock. About 2am all I heard was what sounded like a stampede of biblical proportions, which sounded like it was coming straight for me, scared the hell out of me. All of a sudden it stopped and it fell silent again. I plucked up courage and wandered over to where the sound was coming from, trying to make sense of the ground in front of me in the darkness. I reached a fence, then all of a sudden I had the huge dark figure move right up next to me from the other side of the fence. I then could make out it was about 6 Clydesdale horses, all HUGE! Chatted a while with them, and went back to observing....

[bloodhound31]

Ripper story!:thumbsup:

[BPO]

Last year I was outside my observatory (1,900m elev.) without a light during a mid-winter snowstorm and became disoriented, losing the track and almost going over the 1,500m vertical drop. And the scary part is that it's not the first time I've almost done that. But I'm not a moron.

[multiweb]

Snow can be very disorientating. I nearly drove off a cliff on a mountain road in a snow storm once. We were doing about 20kph in first gear and the tires were all chained. I could barely see past the bonnet. If it wasn't for my mate on the back seat screaming stop we would have taken a 500m dive.

[bloodhound31]

500mm? You were lucky you didn't spill your coffee! :P :lol:

[Nightshift]

September 2007 I was caravanning up the East coast heading for Cairns, we stopped for a couple of nights at a beautiful little spot called Woodgate Beach, a sleepy hamlet on the beach at the north end of Wide Bay. There I was, family asleep in bed, me set up behind the caravan in pitch black darkness really enjoying a dark sky view of Jupiter when I accidently dropped an eyepiece which hit the tray of the Meade making a loud "ting" noise, at which point I was hit by a huge furry creature and knocked to the ground, Meade ETX90 and all, only me and my dry cleaner will ever know how really scared I was. It turned out to be an Eastern Grey Kangaroo who was grazing (ever so quietly) between me and my caravan, I had no idea it was there and I am guessing it had no idea I was there but when I frightened it with the eyepiece it went straight for the scrub which happened to be on the other side of me, my only consolation is knowing that it too probably said "WTF was that!" My Meade landed on me and was undamaged, my pride and underware are still in the scrub near the Woodgate Caravan Park. :rofl:

Dennis.

[astroron]

Good one Dennis :rofl::rofl::rofl:
I bet you where a couple of pounds lighter after that experience :P
Cheers :thumbsup:

[bloodhound31]

That's a beauty Dennis! :lol:

[AstralTraveller]

I've had roos grazing just 1-2m from me at a remote dark-sky site (ie these roos would not have routinely seen people). Fortunately they resisted any urges they had to crash-tackle me. Two years ago at (the optimisticly named) Mt Clear camping area there were roos feeding close enough that I could touch them. I sometimes wonder how they all didn't wind up as dinner.

[jjjnettie]

I'm having one right now!!!
I've set up at a local look out that has thick scrub behind me,across the road. I heard some piggies earlier and thought they'd just move on if I was noisy. Well I'd set up the shots, had attached dew strap and was heading back to car to turn it on when the blasted thing started going off at me!! Grunting and carrying on. I bolted into the car and shut the door Glad I started the imaging run cause I'm staying IN the car for now. :eyepop: