So far, what is the most dramatic, best moment in your astronomical life to happen?

[h0ughy (David)]

That is probably a hard one to answer but I will attempt to do so for me.

A close second would be the Venus transit viewing that we had in Newcastle, the foreshore area was populated by hundreds of people and we had a live radio broadcast by ABC radio whilst it was happening, but in third place was the evening of Tuesday 2nd August 2005 then the whole sky was crystal clear and the sunset was spectacular, rich royal dark blue/black with a orange/red horizon after sunset, the milky way even then very noticeable overhead and the icing on the cake, STS104 passing directly overhead still attached to the ISS, and is beamed reflected light just like car headlights on high beam that illuminated us and the sky directly in front of them. It was awesome.

But in first place for me it would be when I first saw Saturn through a 8 inch Dob in a driveway of a friends place way back when I was 18. I was hooked, it blew me away. Later I then saw Jupiter but the first impression is always the everlasting one for me.

[astronut (John)]

Well, mine would have to be my first look through my ( any ) telescope a Tasco 10x-50x X 40mm of the moon, seeing all those craters and mountains.
It was 1968 and I was 12 years old and full of the wonderment of the space age and the forthcoming lunar landings.
Second would have to be very recently looking through my 12" Lightbridge, all those old favourites have taken on a new lease of life. WOW!!!

[hogly52 (Graeme)]

Watching B&W TV images of Neil Armstrongs first steps on the moon.

Cheers,

Graeme

Easy, when the aliens returned me to my family.

But seriously, watching as a kid the apollo missions from start to finish. never missed a minute of it. If anyone has ever watched "The Dish" you will remember the 8 year old boy (son of Mayor) in the movie, "That's Hydrogen dad", "Oh is that bad?", "No dad it's suppose to happen". That was me.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Nightshift

Easy, when the aliens returned me to my family.

But seriously, watching as a kid the apollo missions from start to finish. never missed a minute of it. If anyone has ever watched "The Dish" you will remember the 8 year old boy (son of Mayor) in the movie, "That's Hydrogen dad", "Oh is that bad?", "No dad it's suppose to happen". That was me.

and you know you even remember the lines

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by hogly52

Watching B&W TV images of Neil Armstrongs first steps on the moon.

Cheers,

Graeme

Neil Who???

Jupiter from a few nights back. I have imaged many times over the last 9 months and had great seeing before, but to see the feed from the webcam of Jupiter and IO transiting filling the laptop screen, was magical.

The while next day whilst on the road, i kept thinking about it!

The wife even got dragged outside thanks to my breathless squeeks of joy.

i now see why you love saturn houghy!

[Lester]

Good topic Houghy,

No. 5= Photograghing Halley's comet
No. 4= Achieving perfect tracking and capturing the Horse Head with manual corrections during 120 minute exposure, prime fucus on 16" f4.5. This took me years to achieve in the early 1980's.
No. 3=Viewing the total solar eclipse at Tantanoola near Mt Gambier in 1976.
No. 2=Photographing the transit of Venus and having it printed on the front cover of the Pt Lincoln Times.
No. 1=Meeting the one and only Asimov.

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by Lester

No. 1=Meeting the one and only Asimov.

have yahoo, spammed IIS, chatted on the phone, msn, but never met in person.

can't wait to meet him face to face.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

2 spectacular favourites:

1. mid 1960's - as a young boy watching a meteor shower in Sydney that was actually a shower. Hundreds of meteors a minute!

2. Late 1980's - seeing Saturn thru a telescope. It was also the first time I had ever seen thru a telescope and I built it myself! (Triple Bonus)

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

2 spectacular favourites:

1. mid 1960's - as a young boy watching a meteor shower in Sydney that was actually a shower. Hundreds of meteors a minute!

2. Late 1980's - seeing Saturn thru a telescope. It was also the first time I had ever seen thru a telescope and I built it myself! (Triple Bonus)

Wow I would love to see a metoer shower like that, one day it may happen, I also want so see a full blown aurora too, too high a latitude for me. Saturn turned me to the dark side! i saw the light and it was through a dobbie!

[Striker (Tony)]

1: Seeing my wifes face when I told her my losmandy G11 with gemini cost $250.....the comment "oh yeah nice hubby" was a magical moment for me...Success.

2: My first 30 second exposure of the Lagoon Neb was a huge shock to the system.

[ving (David)]

oh i dont know!

posibly seeing a double transit accross jupiter. that was pretty darn good

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Leonids 1998

DaveP and others will remember my talk at Snake Valley

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

Like a lot of people:

First time I saw Saturn through a scope. This would also be my wifes best astronomical moment. Last night I had a couple of neighbours over for a squiz, and by the smiles on their faces and the sounds from their mouths...would have to be theirs too!


If there ever was a real lord of the rings, Saturn would have to be it. Just got to get everyone to see it before 2009 when the rings are gone...now that would be disapointing!

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by Dave47tuc

Leonids 1998

DaveP and others will remember my talk at Snake Valley

I (along with my wife) will never look at a lounge chair the same way again without laughing!

[sheeny (Al)]

1. My first ever viewing of saturn through my old 8" Newt.
2. My first ever viewing of 47 Tuc through same scope.
3. Witnessing a fireball that lit up the landscape for, oh... say a 3k radius, with a bright blue light (similar colour to a welding arc), then then hearing a hissing/sizzling sound as the fragments broke up and went orange. (That made the hairs stand up on end!)
4. Viewing the moon with my first ever scope - a little non-descript refractor on an alt-az mount and seeing detail.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Stuff on TV...
Watching the first moon walks.
Seeing Challenger blow up and Columbia break up.
Watching Giotto pass Halley's Comet.
The two Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Watching the recent Comet Temple impact live on Nasa TV.

Magazines.
Viking Mars lander. I remeber being in hospital at the time and was reading about it in the local paper.
Following Voyager 1 and 2 and their journey through the solar system.
All the planet probes.

With my own eyes...
My first total lunar eclipse back in the 70's.
My first comet (Halley) through my 8 inch newt.
Supernova 1987A naked eye and the most memorable was through the 5.5 inch SN next to the tarantula nebula.
Horsehead nebula through the 10 inch f4.5.
Comet Levy in 1990 which I followed for a year.
Making my first telescope.
Making a 16 inch telescope.
Saturn, 47 Tuc and Omega through the same 16 inch telescope! Blown away.
Watching the comet Shoemaker Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter.
The beautiful Comet Hyakutake.
The bright Comet Hale-Bopp.
Mercury transits.
Venus transit.

I've probably forgotton a lot of things. They all seemed pretty dramatic at the time.

Edit, Oops, I read most dramatic but missed "best moment" otherwise I wouldn't have included the shuttle accidents. But you all knew that.

[ving (David)]

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

I (along with my wife) will never look at a lounge chair the same way again without laughing!

why arent you looking at your wife the same way again? did she do something?

[cahullian]

you needed to be there ving lol and I think it was a banana lounge he he

[robagar]

the 11/11/99 solar eclipse, not least because it was cloudy right up to first contact