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Hi John,
Well telling you the story, I was out at Leyburn, our dark sky place South and inland from Toowoomba.
The night was exceptionally clear and I'd been looking in a friend's 18" dob.
I went back to my scope and dialled up alnitak and had a look at the photo I had (with a red light I hasten to add) orienting it so that I DIDN'T get Flame Nebula - I skipped the OTA over until Alnitak was not visible and went and got a beer - I sat down with my eyes closed for a while even though I could only see the milky way (which oddly enough was bright enough to cast a slight shadow) I got up and peered through my scope using averted vision and all the tricks, nothing did a bit of a spiral search - nope- sat down - had some more beer (same can, I'm not a soak!) about ten minutes later I got up thinking I'd head over to Saturn as it was clear of the trees.
After a minute or so I thought is that it? I could make out the softest variation with the darker horse's head - now whether this is my imagination playing tricks or not I don't know. Looked again, nope there's definitely something there. Looked again - nothing. Kept looking for a while - no it's gone. So it was very fleeting and also very there.
The scope was brand new as were my eyes! I'd spent 20 minutes with no visual input. Several hours with minimal input.
If you put me on a lie detector, I'll come out clean, whether it WAS Horsey, I will not be able to tell you until I repeat the situation.
I'm as certain as I can be, but I cold also be wrong.
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