Wait - I got more spider stories! this one is even astronomy related! Some friends and i went south to the sticks, to see a bright low lying comet in the S/W (2002 V1 NEAT). We went to look thru my mates 6.3 dob and there was a huge huntsman spread out on the primary

- awesome sight in the ep! It was a very funny sight - but my mate wasnt to happy (who took those picks before) as he wont harm them of course, but still had to try to coax it out in time for a better look - but i did see the shadow of the spider superimposed on the image of the comet - way cool!.
beren - re hornet/spider battle - that is weird you said that!, because a friend had only just recently told me he witnessed something very similar in his backyard last summer - a titanic battle that lasted around half an hour - but he said it was the large aussie native wasp that was trying to drag the large huntsman to its hole for its young to feed on. The wasp won! - apparently thats what this particular local wasp lives on predominantly.
Cheers
Fringey - send a horrible pic of a spider to your friends in the UK - they wont sleep for a week!