You lot do scare easily..... But....My biggest fear is just stepping on a Brown Snake in the dark, they do their moving around at night.
Grizzly Bears frighten the crap out of me
And I am not afraid to admit it
I observe all the time on my own and now and again get a Wallaby bang into my leg or a bat give me a whack in the ear at 02:00 hours,Dingo's howling only 40mts away are few of the things I put up with over my observing nights.
Cheers
Shots you hear aren't the problem, it's the one you didn't hear that got you! But, if you hear any "lead wasps" .... duck!! .
Haha true, but that first shot is still a shocker.
When you're sitting out there in the dead quiet for hours on end and BANG! time to change the jocks.
Its amazing how stupendously loud and sharp a shotgun blast is when only a hundred metres away or so, especially at 2 in the morning when you think you're all alone!
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.
Last edited by sheeny; 29-01-2014 at 06:17 PM.
Reason: typo
One night when the Pony Club was closed, I found a quiet dirt road nearby.
No lights.
One house way back off the road.
Vacant fields either side.
Set up, observing happily until,...
4WD pulls up behind me, flood lights on me, so I turned my back hoping to preserve my night vision when I hear...
"Don't try and hide your face from me you b........,
turn around and face me"
So I turn around to be looking down the barrel of a rifle.
And a mean angry farmer.
Seems his fields had been robbed the previous week, and he was waiting for the culprit to return to finish the job.!
That got the heart rate up a bit.
After a long tense period to convince him I was an amateur astronomer I offered him a look through the scope at M42.
He walked away shaking his head..."I can't see nothing but clouds" ...
Hi Chris, would you mind pointing this place out on a map? Might be worthwhile checking out. I'm not afraid of possums...
Cheers
Steffen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AG Hybrid
I would like to know this magical location too!
Here you go guys, I have pinned it and put the coordinates in for you, hopefully no shallow graves nearby
Quote:
Originally Posted by leon
I love it Chris, yea mate, it happens to all of us occasionally. but would you not have loved to stay to find out what that really was ??
Leon
Ahhh, not really Leon, no....it was coming waaaay too fast and loud for me to want to sit there and say "pleased to meet you, Mr Denizen of the gates of Hell, please ignore my genitals....."
I have attached the Google Earth spot for reference below.
Here you go guys, I have pinned it and put the coordinates in for you, hopefully no shallow graves nearby
Ahhh, not really Leon, no....it was coming waaaay too fast and loud for me to want to sit there and say "pleased to meet you, Mr Denizen of the gates of Hell, please ignore my genitals....."
I have attached the Google Earth spot for reference below.
Cheers
Chris
Ohhhh I know where that is. I drove pass that spot last Sunday when I was checking out the area for prospective sites. It looks dark to the south. But, I think the north and north west would have a little bit of LP.
Yep, the North West to Katoomba is a bit glowy, but everywhere else is almost 360 degrees dark and low to the horizon. The south is spectacular as you can see the SMC and LMC ALL night as the south horizon is so low.
Really nice spot, apart from the scary things in the night....
Every time I've gone out to a secluded spot (i.e. known lookouts and the like) it's often been inhabited by stoners or kids out on a night on the proverbial. I'm not spooked out by the natural dark or fauna but the two legged variety who don't appreciate the beauty of a dark site
The weather was a bit cruddy one night on the mountain, so I went to bed thinking it may improve later.
I got up sometime in the early hours and stepped outside to look and was momentarily terrified: The sky had cleared, and, in my fully dark-adapted state, I was staring straight into the heart of the galaxy.
It was as if I'd opened a starship's airlock and stepped out into interstellar space.
It's the only time I've had that particular experience, but it was just plain freaky.
I got up sometime in the early hours and stepped outside to look and was momentarily terrified: The sky had cleared, and, in my fully dark-adapted state, I was staring straight into the heart of the galaxy.
It was as if I'd opened a starship's airlock and stepped out into interstellar space.
It's the only time I've had that particular experience, but it was just plain freaky.
I know what you mean about the Milky Way BPO, one of the first times I pulled up at Linden Observatory, I got out, walked towards the viewing field and looked up and saw the sky. I sighed and said out loud....."awww man, its cloudy!!!! GRRRRR". To which 3 or 4 people turned around and said, " You idiot, that's the Milky Way!!!!"
Because I had only observed from my Light Polluted back yard, I hadn't truly seen the dust lanes from a really dark site in the winter before, so of COURSE I thought it was a cloud!!!! What a dumbass!
It was just so unexpected, and caught me completely off guard. The door opened and I was looking directly toward the eastern horizon just as the Sagittarius region was rising. All I could see in the dark was a deep three-dimensional mass of untold numbers of stars!
I had only observed from my Light Polluted back yard, I hadn't truly seen the dust lanes from a really dark site.
When I moved to the Wimmera from a life time of city lights & saw the dark night sky for the first time, I don't mind admitting I wept, It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Now after 7 years here, I see it 80% of the year.....and I am starting to take it for granted. Sad, I know....
When I moved to the Wimmera from a life time of city lights & saw the dark night sky for the first time, I don't mind admitting I wept, It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Now after 7 years here, I see it 80% of the year.....and I am starting to take it for granted. Sad, I know....
What I love most about the view is how it brings home the fact that we're a part of it all.
Spent most of my late teens and early 20's doing just that. Its how I finally "grew up" Highly recommend it. Me, me and the universe was mighty humbling and I envy you the chance for complete solitude. It has been a while...
I had a weird experience at the RTMC at Big Bear in California many years ago. Late at night if you go walking and turn on a torch you're often surrounded by wild donkeys. The buggers eyes glow blood red and slant forward. By torch light, its pretty much all you can see of them. First time I had the experience, I fair near shat myself
I grew up in a rural area, but have been living in city areas for such a long time that I forgot what the night was truly like. When I did the dark site visit late last year, I was amazed again and happy to rediscover the sky. It's really incredible.
I wasn't completely by myself, however my wife was asleep in a nearby house, so I was alone in the paddock by myself. The roos weren't an issue because I knew they were around from the late afternoon. However a damn rabbit startled the crap out of me in the early hours when I was tired and partly asleep. It wasn't a worry - just caught me by surprise. I think I'm more worried by snakes than anything else though since I doubt I would have any warning of them being around.
I love going out to my dark site by myself. Gives me a chance to experiment with things on the scope and talk to myself without being interrupted. I love trying out different things with the cameras also, something to do while out there.
Scariest moment would have to have been while I was on my own, I decided to take a walk at night on the 33acre property. I came up to a fence, so I started following it.. suddenly all I could hear was a thunderous noise heading towards me, a stampede or something... scared the you know whats out of me... out of the darkness came about 6 Clydesdale horses, which came over to see if I had food no doubt... they were huge! They were also very friendly, letting me pat each of them, before they decided I wasn't a threat or had no food, so they left... From that time on wards, while out there, I would take a nightly stroll to go see them.. Unfortunately they are no longer there, and the current horses couldn't care less if I was there or not.
I have had the bejeesus scared out of me once at Linden Observatory when I was there by myself and a wallaby decided to BOUNCE through the bush and freaked me out.
Another time, which was worse, was when I went to Linden, but the gates were closed, so I decided to head to King's Tableland in Wentworth Falls further up.
I drove down the ridgeline for about 5 mins and found a nice entrance road on an exposed ridge with almost 360 degrees panorama and DARK skies. After it took me 15 mins to set everything up, I was in heaven, Andromeda was naked eye, I had gorgeous views, complete silence, inky blackness, coffee, chips and cigarettes (the three C's) and spent a good 4 hours touring visually.
THEN.
I felt a little bladder pressure imminent so I toddled over to the edge of the clearing where the scrub was to relieve myself, lovely still air, staring up at the Milky Way with my old feller out and the sound of tinkling water as I did what I needed to do......when......
BAM, CRASH, THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP, coming closer and closer from in the darkness....STRAIGHT FOR ME.
Here I was, 90kms from home, in the middle of freaking nowhere, NOBODY knew where I was, NOONE around for at least 5kms, wife thinks I am at Linden about 15 ks away, PITCH BLACK, it would take me 15 mins to pack up....AND a steady stream of warm, filtered blood is pouring out all over the bush from an area that no longer has any testicles visible as they had already retreated from whence they came.....
Needless to say I stood there, half frozen from inability to stop my business and zip up, a quarter from terror of WHAT THE F.....is that??? and the rest of me remembering THAT scene in American Werewolf in London in the Scottish highlands where the two backpackers were warned to stay on the roads.....you know the one!
SO, after a few more bash, bash, crash, thumps, I had zipped up, spun around with a rapidly spreading stain in my jeans, RAN to the car, THREW the scope in the back FULLY assembled, SHUT all the doors, LEAPT into the driver's seat, started the ignition and NOTHING!?!?! CLICK CLICK CLICK, no engine, no starter motor......CRAP, I AM DEAD!!!! AHHHHHHH......
I look down, its still in bloody DRIVE!!!!, DAMN, whack it in neutral, start the car, and TEAR OFF down the dirt track like my pants were on fire and stuffed with flesh eating ants!!!!
It took me until Penrith 40kms away to stop looking in the rear vision mirror and my adrenalin had calmed to the point where I decided I could STOP DOING 120kms per hour.....all the while I kept thinking, OVER AND OVER......"Stick to the roads, BEWARE OF THE MOORS"!!!!
I don't know if it was the Lithgow Panther, a Bunyip or the Boogie Man, but I didn't stick around to find out.
They never did find those two American Hikers........
Still gives me goosebumps to this day.
C...C.....C.....C......Chris
Could be the Yowie monster( australian version of bigfoot) out there.It is potentially dangerous in observing in the deep bush of the blue mountains at night.
But....My biggest fear is just stepping on a Brown Snake in the dark, they do their moving around at night.
