Several occasions as we all do but one that sticks out.
A group of us locals up on Mt Albert looking for Comet McNaught. in the early evening. I kept hunting the low west sky in the twilight when a youngster standing off to one side said 'There it is..' Turned about 15 * and saw the most glorious long tailed sight in the twilight I have ever seen. Took a few photos later but this was before I found IIS and the slippery slope of AP.
Like Ron , Shoemaker Levy-9 in my 60mm f15 refractor on the first night and then following the marks as they changed over the weeks in our clubs C14 , awesome .
Just to see something happening and changing with your own eyes in real ( -33 min of course ) time is rare in astronomy .
Becoming co- rediscoverer of Waschman Schmann 3rd as it re-appared at mag 3 in Scorpious in about 1984 ? after being lost for about 80 years was pretty special as well , its periodical at about 6 years from memory .
Showing Saturn to my Dad - blew his socks off. Like a marble in a plate.
The other, my better half and I went up to Lake Mungo, no moon, just the universe to light our way as we walked. She had never been under a sky anything even vaguely like that.
Halley's Comet - my first experience at a dark site and the first time I took a serious photo, on film
The first time I saw Saturn through a telescope.
Transit of Venus. I setup two telescopes in a vacant lot across the road from my place. During the course of the day, I had probably 15-18 people pull up and ask what I was doing. Everyone then asked if they could have a look. At one point I had a queue.
All wonderful experiences.
yep concur completely plus for me Queensland Astrofest it cannot get any better. my transit of venus the first time was a live broadcast event on the foreshore in Newcastle then the second one was chasing clear skies to Nyngan with Mr Sidonio, but Saturn was a head turner for me through a 12" telescope when i was a wee laddy. but a hot evening to see comet Mcnaught was extremely awesome
There have been many memorable astronomical sights for me over the years, too many to list here but the standout(s) were both naked eye, though binos' and scopes were involved as well during the events.
The first was the 2002 solar eclipse from Ceduna, with my kids and ex partner, unfortunately the kids were too young to remember much. Seeing that black hole in the sky with the surrounding corona is something everyone needs to see in their lifetimes , it's something that words can't begin to do justice to.
The other mind blowing event was Comet McNaught in 2008 from Saddleback Mt. near Kiama. Watching the comet and its tail appearing in the heavens in the deepening twilight was awesome. Sharing the scene with some fellow club members and the general public who came up to take in the spectacle made the evening more enjoyable.
Well, for moi, there are a few but I'll keep it short...
My 1st T'scope was the lowly Tasco 114 way back when, but it was enough for me to see the black impact left by
the "G" segment of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 as it crashed into Jupiter.
A few years ago, can't remember exactly when, but around Christmas time I witnessed an "Earth grazer" of what appeared to be about the size of a car.
(Always hard to tell the size.)
Anyway, this asteroid started off in the West & progressed right across the sky
& disappeared into the East.
It was a dull red but shed lots of green & red hot debris as it traversed the sky for a total of about 120 degrees.
I even called the local ABC radio about it during one of Prof Fred Watsons interviews a few days later.
The 2 caravan park visitors I was showing a few things to & who were slightly under the weather, were astounded to actually see this object hurtle through the upper atmosphere.
The 2nd is & probably more memorable is, as Jeff ^, stated...the tremendous view that was "Comet McNaught"
as we waited for it to emerge, back in 2007 at Saddleback Mt.
An absolutely unforgettable experience for us, AA's & all the visitors who came to see it.
Truly gobsmacked by the view.
The 1st image was taken by Joe, the 2nd by Neil, both members of the W.A.A.C.ers & show the glow from Berry & Nowra in the distance.
2012 transit of venus. months of preparation and testing/trial runs. worrying over weather forecasts. two weeks of solid cloud cover prior to the day, waking early to look outside and see stars (no clouds!). My viewing site was behind my home adjacent to a major road. Got to photograph the entire event (even through the clouds that drifted in towards the end). watching and realising this transit event in the cycle was last seen by James Cook before "discovering" Australia as an afterthought was an almost spiritual experience. And I was all alone, I wanted to run out into traffic and drag people out of their cars to take a look. I then read Chasing Venus, and realised I had gone through many similar trials and tribulations and emotional roller coaster in my journey to catch the transit.
Seeing Jupiter or Saturn through an eyepiece still thrills me, but the transit was a strong experience for me, far beyond all others.
Too many astronomical sights to pick one. So I’ll choose the night I spent observing with Al Nagler. It was just him and I, and I was driving a 32” dob so we could test the new DeLite eyepieces. There were only 3 in existence and we had all 3 there to compare against a bunch of Ethos. It was such a thrill, I had goose bumps. Like playing a round of golf with Tiger.
1) Showing my (very) young son Halley's Comet through the eyepiece of my new C-8 in 1986 (I sincerely hope he will see it once more )
2)The 2001 Leonid meteor storm seen from the flight deck of a 767, while en-route SIN-SYD (I was one of the flight crew). Most of Australia (below 30,000 feet) was being rained on. The meteor shower was simply awesome....easily 3000 per hour.
3) 2003 Total Solar Eclipse Antarctic Qantas charter flight. Set some records that day..Australia's longest duration "domestic flight". I was one of the flight crew (co-pilot + astronomy buff ) for this charter flight. Kudos to Dr Glenn Schneider and his eclipse software. We flew under the shadow of the moon to the second. We absolutely nailed it. My best day at work ever.
4)2006 total solar eclipse from the Sahara desert. Who would have guessed? It rained in the Sahara the night before!!
But...the following morning... conditions were perfect ..crystal clear skies (rain= no dust!).
Hmm, so many really good ones. Not in any order but these are the best:
1994 Shoemaker Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter. Incredible to watch.
Imaging and seeing the Venus transit 2012.
Seeing a Russian rocket re-enter over Adelaide about 5-6 years ago. It covered the entire sky. It made Skylab look like a smudge. About 5 people from our society saw it and a couple of guys that used to visit here also saw it.
My first total solar eclipse - 2002 Ceduna eclipse.
Comet West in 1976 (my first comet), not the best but certainly memorable.
My first visible aurora (cycle 24). I had surprisingly never seen one before, despite having the opportunity to see one.
The best out of all of the above, would be my first total solar eclipse. It resulted in us seeing a further 2 and planning to see more when time and money permit.
* Seeing a bright greenish bolide streak across the outer Melbourne suburban skies as a teenager (had a profound impact on my lifelong interest in astronomy, believe it or not!);
* First time seeing Saturn through the eyepiece (it's all REAL!);
* Seeing Halley's Comet in 1986 (sense of history);
* Comet McNaught in 2007 (staggeringly beautiful);
* Total Solar Eclipse 2010 (my first, seen from shipboard in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia - no need to say more!);
* Transit of Venus in 2012 (sense of history; rare event, not always occurring in one's lifetime);
* Seeing the "bolide of a lifetime" while delivering an after-dinner star talk in a remote area of the Kimberley in 2017, and sharing the experience with 20-odd guests! Unbelievably brilliant, like a flare on steroids;
* Discovering Nova Muscae 2018 (growing excitement as it passed check after check, and taking the low-res spectrum which confirmed its identity!).
But as far as a magical, unexpected, memorable astronomical experience, I'd have to go for one dark night in the early 2000s when I was camped out at a remote place called Haunted Stream in the mountains of Gippsland, doing surveys of historic sites.
No telescope or anything, but the sky was awesome - the Milky Way was so bright and mutely coloured brownish-green. The dark lanes were clear and showed an web-like intricacy the like of which I'd never seen before or since. Like that fine detail you see in widefield photographs. The night after was ostensibly the same but it was just a superb dark night, business as usual! I've spent a lot of my life in remote and dark places - deserts, mountains and even islands and I've never seen anything even beginning to match that one perfect night. Gotta be the highlight!
Doing 52 years in Astronomy, some of my highlights:
* 9 May 1970 Transit of Mercury
* 24 April 1986 Total Lunar Eclipse and Comet Halley high in the sky (Byron Bay NSW)
* 18 March 1988 Total solar eclipse in Palembang, Sumatra
* April 1989 Visit to ESO in Chile and nice dark skies in San Pedro de Atacama
* 8 June 2004 Transit of Venus
* Jan 2000 Pitch dark skies during night Greyhound bus stops along Stuart Highway (NT)
* Feb 2016 Fomalhaut in the zenith on midday only 22 deg from Sun with 11cm scope (South Africa)
* Feb 2016 Star party at real dark location Leeuwenboschfontein Western Cape
* 25 Mar 2016 Thin Venus crescent on day of inferior conjunction
* 9 May 2016 Transit of Mercury
my very first view of Saturn, it was through an old tasco 70mm (?) very cheap and very nasty. But Saturn was amazing, can see why Galileo through it was a planet with ears.
Oh boy, 23 years in Astronomy with many many highlights.
The first that comes to mind was back in the early days. I had my 10" Meade Starfinder set up in my surburban backyard and was looking for the Helix Nebula. I know...crazy!!!
Well I found it after a lot of searching and was so excited I ran inside and called my mate Grant...at about 3am His parents were not impressed.
These days I focus 100% on outreach. My most memorable outreach experience was at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth. I had a small scope set up and was showing the kids Saturn, Moon, Jewel Box etc. A young boy came up to me as i was packing up and said that he'd been there for six weeks and this was the best thing that had happened to him so far. I'll never forget that.
Like Ron , Shoemaker Levy-9 in my 60mm f15 refractor on the first night and then following the marks as they changed over the weeks in our clubs C14 , awesome .
, but Saturn was a head turner for me through a 12" telescope when i was a wee laddy
. but a hot evening to see comet Mcnaught was extremely awesome
His parents were not impressed.
