I do most of my astronomy alone. The scariest things to me are:
- When someone walks up to me and I haven't seen or heard them. Doesn't happen very often...
- When someone drives up behind me and shines their lights on me and I haven't seen or heard them. Only happened once in my head when a big bolide lit the place up, but it got the adrenalin going till I worked out what was really going on!
- Spotlighters.
If little kids tell me they're afraid of the dark, I tell them I'm not, cause I'm the scariest thing there is out there. Now, that'll work OK if the kid finds you friendly enough...
When I lived in town I used to go and set up in the quarry on Blue Hill (not far from where I now live). I got there one night and the quarry itself was fenced off with all sorts of official looking nasty signs, so I setup on the road into the quarry (which is on top of the hill). Some spotlighters turned up, so just to let them know I was there I played my green laser pointer across the vehicle... I've never seen a green laser sight, but I guess these guys weren't going to take any chances. I had the place to myself the rest of the night. I guess I
was the scariest thing out there that night.
I'm with you Ron... been to Canada and don't want to share my scope with a bear. Likewise I've been to South Africa, and there's a few beasts over there I'm wary of too!
Al.