"Jan Owen" wrote in message
news:NsCSa.22712$zy.7247@fed1read06...
It's interesting to contemplate what the reaction might be if everyone,
when the cops arrived, grabbed the front of their Dobsonians, and swung
them around and down, and pointed them directly at the squad car...

On the other hand, of course, this might be met with a hail of bullets
from one of those folks afflicted with the Wyatt Earp syndrome, and a lack
of gray matter between their ears...

I actually had a similar situation occur about 20 years ago with a blue tube
Coulter
13.1" Dob I owned. I was observing near a fish hatchery in the small town
of
Mansfield, NJ. The scope was pointed relatively low towards the horizon at
M104,
which just happened to be in the direction of the road. All of a sudden a
car pulled
up and parked with its headlights pointed down the barrel of the scope,
about 300
feet from us. I motioned to it to lower the lights. Nothing happened.
After about
2 or 3 minutes, the car slowly moved towards us. Turned out to be one of
two
policemen on duty from the local force. He seemed very nervous as he got
out of
the car, then seemd releived after he found out it was a telescope.

We let him look at a variety of objects through the scope, and he radioed
the other
guy on duty to come on over. We then showed the other officer views through
the
scope.

Finally, the first policeman admited that he was vary scared when he first
saw us,
as he though that the scope was a rocket launcher, not a telescope. That is
why he
was so cautious about approaching us. Thankfully, he asked questions first,
and
didn't shoot. No joke, this really happened.

Thanks, Tom Davis