Be careful right now when out with your scopes. There are some very nervous folk.
I set up a Mak tonight at a local park in Vaucluse where I'm living at the moment.. Something I've done a few times now in the last few months. All was well for just 10 minutes when cops started appearing, not just on foot but with PolAir too.
Vaucluse has a very high Jewish population. And unfortunately many of these folk are understandably very anxious at the moment. And just like the majority of any population, most people don't recognize what we use as a telescope. To them a telescope is what a pirate uses. But show up with an odd looking mount and a strange contraption wrapped in "foil", with a fellow being very attentive looking at it up close, and in the dark, and their first thought is "suspicious activity".
Despite the first cop walking around me and saying "just a bloke with a telescope looking at the Moon, more cops appeared soon after, and then the PolAir chopper circled around me for 15 minutes before moving on.
There must have been many calls made to the cops in the two hours I was there.
It is not the first time this has happened to me. A few years back I had the blooming Spooks called on me, and these blighters are all James Bond with their crap.
I have no problem with the police. But at the moment with the conflict that is developing in the middle east, there are some very anxious folks who see anything they don't recognise as suspicious and threatening. Especially if you are using an computer controlled goto eq mount, with cameras and wires going everywhere, you looking very attentively at the computer, tap-tap-tapping away on the keyboard the scope slewing around automatically and unexpectedly, you may be in for a very rude shock if the cop who comes by to see what is going on gets rather spooked by what they see and don't understand.
One of my first scopes was a 12 inch dob. These look remarkably similar to canons. Two cops pulled up next to me on the sidewalk and after looking at me suspiciously asked whats that.....
I was gonna rate it an 8, until you got the the PolAir chopper. You now get a 9.
You should have asked them if the insulation wrap on your scope was doing it's job. Not everyday you have a multimillion dollar thermal camera inspecting your pride and joy
I had the tactical response team called on me a few years go when I was taking pictures of birds at the local wetlands. Guns drawn and the whole shebag (get down on the ground! get on the ground NOW!!). Was bizarre and pretty scary.
Apparently some degenerate thought my camera and long telephoto lens was a gun...More annoying was the stupidity of 'highly trained professionals' that couldn't tell the difference between a camera with a telephoto lens and a firearm.
What really got me was the escalation of this whole thing. PolAir? Really??
Why not just send a doughnut-muncher to talk to me first instead?
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the cops, but dumb is dumb.
Tell you what though, next week during the lunar eclipse, I may well set up in the same place, but this time take some really impressive gear, and a laptop! I'd be disappointed if the SWAT team wasn't called!
What do you reckon? An 8" Newt with a nice long refractor piggybacked onto it with cameras plugged into both, all on to a shiny white EQ6? That MUST surely get a reaction...
Or a nice big Mak with a decorated insulating wrap like the one I did for a C5 below?
I won't take a laser because then I know I'll just get nuked... Or will I...
Hi Alexander,
that's an amazing story.
People must be really on edge after seeing the carnage in Israel.
The police do go a bit far sometimes.
What did they think you had - a cannon?
What really got me was the escalation of this whole thing. PolAir? Really??
Why not just send a doughnut-muncher to talk to me first instead?
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the cops, but dumb is dumb.
Tell you what though, next week during the lunar eclipse, I may well set up in the same place, but this time take some really impressive gear, and a laptop! I'd be disappointed if the SWAT team wasn't called!
What do you reckon? An 8" Newt with a nice long refractor piggybacked onto it with cameras plugged into both, all on to a shiny white EQ6? That MUST surely get a reaction...
Or a nice big Mak with a decorated insulating wrap like the one I did for a C5 below?
I won't take a laser because then I know I'll just get nuked... Or will I...
I'll let you know from jail.
Alex
The problem starts when Polair sends down it Tractor Beam and whisks you away to LongBay or somewhere , never to return. If you need someone to bail you out though, you hav my number.
Wow that is incredible, however I can understand it from some of the general public, but not the professionals.
Leon
Having watched Police practicing at the pistol club over a number of years, it's definately a case of personal aptitude and interest. Some Police are good at guns, others were as enthusiastic as if the gun was coated in faeces. Same thing I found in the motorcycle club - Some cops enjoyed bikes, others couldn't stand them nor their owners. Very individual, and rarely "uniform". The only thing "uniform" is their shirt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by N1
Pretty instructive tale for crooks on how to draw attention away from whatever it is they want to do...
Good point
Quote:
Originally Posted by mental4astro
Tell you what though, next week during the lunar eclipse, I may well set up in the same place, but this time take some really impressive gear, and a laptop! I'd be disappointed if the SWAT team wasn't called!
I suggest swapping reflectors for refractors - you won't see nearly as much through them, but everyone, including police and special forces, would easily recognise that it is a telescope you are using and not a rocket launcher
...maybe don't wear the ski mask at the same time...
Or will I... 
