What was your most fav celestial event

[stattonb (Statton)]

Just wondering what was there fav celestial event they have seen past or present ? I know there would have to be one that blew you away more then others.
Mine leonid meteor shower 2002 and the Solar Eclipse in Ceduna

[iceman (Mike)]

Total Lunar Eclipse in August 2007 was great, but my favourite was Comet McNaught - just brilliant!

[stattonb (Statton)]

awesome

[gary]

Solar Eclipse Merimbula, NSW 1976 - breathtaking.
Solar Eclipse Wirraminna, South Australia 2002
Leonid Shower Nyngan, NSW 2002
Comet McNaught, IISAC, Lostock, 2007

Undoubtedly the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact of Jupiter in 1994 is going to feature high on some lists.
SN1987A might feature high for some.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Hard to go past Comet McNaught. : )

http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozy..._McNaught.html

That was one of the shots I got of it.

H

[astroron (Ron)]

Comet Halley 1986
Supernova 1987A
Comet impact on Jupiter,Shoemaker-Levy 9
Comet Hyukataki 1994
Comet Hale-Bopp
Comet McNaught

Cheers

PS
Leonid Meteor shower was spectacular as well.

[Rob_K]

Top three is easy for me:

1. Total solar eclipse 2010, Tuamotu Archipelago, Fr Polynesia. First and only TSE (so far!). Beyond words;
2. Comet McNaught, 2007. The beauty and scale of it awed me;
3. Halley's Comet, 1986. Not that it was spectacular, just the incredible feeling of actually seeing this famous object.

Cheers -

[gary]

Originally Posted by Octane

Hard to go past Comet McNaught. : )

http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozy..._McNaught.html

That was one of the shots I got of it.

H

Hi H,

McNaught was something else, wasn't it!

Just a heads-up.

At my end the URL resolves with the text content of the page
but the image is not appearing. The browser is just showing a red cross where
it should have loaded.

Best Regards

Gary

[gary]

Originally Posted by astroron

Comet Halley 1986
Supernova 1987A
Comet impact on Jupiter,Shoemaker-Levy 9
Comet Hyukataki 1994
Comet Hale-Bopp
Comet McNaught

Cheers

Good list Ron. Not many surprises there. All knock-your-socks off events.

And if you had to pick just one, which I appreciate is tough, what would you go with?

[Barrykgerdes]

When you get old and decrepit like me the finest celestial event is to see the sunrise in the morning.

Barry

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by gary

Good list Ron. Not many surprises there. All knock-your-socks off events.

And if you had to pick just one, which I appreciate is tough, what would you go with?

Thanks Gary,Tough choice, but I would have to say Comet Shoemaker -Levy 9, with Supernova 1987A a very, very,very close second.
Cheers

[Liz]

Yep, the Leonid meteor shower of 2001 ...... unforgettable, knock ya socks off event.

[stattonb (Statton)]

good events guys as i am younger then most to you im kinda limited but i do see Comet McNaugh which was awesome and Leonid Shower 2002 well got a mouthful in the morning after waking my mum up to see it early morning lol

[rmcconachy]

#1 Leonids storm in Nov 2001 from a little north of Alice Springs (very dark skies, the show lasted for hours and the ZHR was huge)
#2 Comet McNaught in early 2007, my first really bright comet

[gary]

Originally Posted by astroron

Thanks Gary,Tough choice, but I would have to say Comet Shoemaker -Levy 9, with Supernova 1987A a very, very,very close second.
Cheers

Hi Ron,

Friend Andrew Murrell (aka Hector) enjoys re-telling the story from time to time
of the night the impact of Shoemaker Levy 9 first became visible.

Andrew had the 20" set-up at the ASNSW dark-sky site at Ilford with Jupiter in the
eye-piece.

Club Treasurer at the time was Max Gardener. Sadly Max passed away several
years go (see below) *.
Now Max was a total gentleman. None of us ever recollect Max ever having cussed.

Well, Max climbed the ladder, looked through the eyepiece and saw the black
pock marks on Jupiter's surface.

He uttered a profanity that for decency's sake, I cannot reproduce here, but in coming
from a gentleman like Max, had a hundred times the impact than if it had come from
the average guy. The assembled group waiting to have a look chuckled and appreciated
by Max's spontaneous, astonished and heartfelt exclamation that they were about to see
something extraordinary.




* As a footnote, apart from being an extraordinarily generous benefactor to the Club,
at the time of his passing, Max was also chair of the Prostate Council of Australia.
There is a link that says a little about Max's work in that regard here -
http://www.prostatehealth.org.au/new...?notice_id=235 and it seems
appropriate to bring to the attention to readers the importance of the work
the Council does. Visit http://www.prostatehealth.org.au/

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

My very first view of Saturn is first off the rank. I wasn't expecting this 'star' to be anything more than a pinpoint of light through my little 2" Tasco. Boy, didn't I get a surprise when this star had a disk and rings!!!!

That was in 1984.

Then in 1988, making regular visual notes on the position of Venus every week, at the same time in the early evening, for about three months, to see its position and brightness change. Something like a really slow slowmo. It gave me a real sense of a 3D effect of the planet orbiting the Sun inside our Earth's orbit. I guess it is only one of those intensely personal quiet "wow" moments.

[Jen]

Total Lunar Eclipse in 07 was the first one i had ever seen

Loved it

[stattonb (Statton)]

wow 1984 was when i was born lol but i do think seeing Saturn for the first time would be on alot of peoples list

[bloodhound31]

I'd have to say McNaught.

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by Octane

Hard to go past Comet McNaught. : )

http://members.optusnet.com.au/mrozy..._McNaught.html

That was one of the shots I got of it.

H

Link broken H.