Missed astro events

[deanm (Dean)]

I recently missed a mag. -8.2 Iridium flare: the brightest prediction I've ever encountered locally, just 1 km away (I've previously caught a mag. -7.3 & that blew me away!).

The sky was clear, dark & unobstructed without having to go somewhere to catch it.

DAMN!

I'd inadvertently agreed to meet some friends for dinner at the local RSL at the flashy moment (no chance of seeing it from bright-light town).

Try telling RSL types you have to cancel dinner because of a flash in the sky that lasts 2 seconds!

What astro events have you missed & why? (excluding weather events).

Dean

[Wavytone]

In Sydney this is normal... it has been clouded out on every occasion there has been something worth seeing for ... 20+ years. On a couple of occasions I drove 400km west to get out from under the cloud to see a comet or lunar eclipse...

Now I don't bother. It would be easier to fly to somewhere cloud-free.

[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

I drove 35km out of the city to observe a supposed -7.1 flare on it's center line. It did get bright right on time but not even as bright as Venus and definitely not -7. I don't think the predictions are really geographically accurate.

Yet to see a "blow me away" bright one!

Joe

[Suzy]

I've become addicted to those iridium flares in the last couple of years .

I can't recall any events that I've missed......
Post it notes are stuck all over my house .

Before I got my telescope, I missed seeing Mars at its close approach to Earth- was it 2005 ? I hear so much talk about that. I would've loved to have seen it . And also the impacts on Jupiter by the broken up comet- wow, that would've been a fantastic experience to see those impacts through a telescope. Instead, I made do by watching the updates on the 6pm news.