My most memorable observations

When you've been in amateur astronomy for a long time, (thirty years for me)
you collect a fair number of memorable observing experiences. A few nights
ago, I got to thinking about which ones were the standouts, the few
exceptional ones I'd pick above all others. This proved to be harder than I
anticipated, and I spent several pleasant hours going through the memory
banks.

These are my top three:

No. 3

March 1976, Comet West in the morning sky. The predawn sky was cold with
clearing scattered bands of clouds from Claremont, Ca. A winter rainstorm
had passed through the previous day and I was unsure if I would be able to
see anything when I got up at 4:00 AM.
I had only seen one previous comet, Bennett in 1970, and didn't know what to
expect from this one, as there was only a short viewing window between when
it rose and the start of dawn. I headed North toward the San Gabriel
mountain foothills with my binos and 35mm camera loaded with High Speed
Ektachrome. As I drove, I kept glancing East across the San Antonio wash
where there were scattered bright lights from the rock quarries. I had
gotten past most of them, but there was one unseen one that was throwing a
large fan of light into the sky. I was just getting annoyed that I wasn't
passing it, ....it seemed to be paralleling me....OHMIGAWD! I hit the
brakes and stopped in the middle of the road, got out and just stared as
the nucleus cleared the horizon. The tail of comet West was a banded wedge
filling a twenty degree angle, and nearly forty degrees long. There was a
streak of dark cloud cutting across the comet about five degrees above the
head which imparted a three dimensional sense to the scene. This magnificent
sight only lasted a few days, as the comet faded rapidly after the breakup.


No. 2

2001 Leonids, fireball night. The only meteor shower that lived up to the
expectations of the little kid inside of me. They came in flurries of
sometimes two or three per second with an overall rate of 600+ per hour. I
was observing from Wrightwood, Ca. on top of a 7,500 ft. mountain with a
panoramic view over the Mojave desert to the North. Just as dawn was
starting, the radiant was overhead and the meteors were coming down
vertically all around the horizon. No matter what direction I looked, I
could see a decently bright meteor every two or three seconds. There wasn't
a breath of wind, and it was totally silent as I watched the sky rain stars.
I was still seeing an occasional one when the sky had brightned to the point
where I had lost second magnitude stars. Visibility that morning was
perfectly clear, and the dawn was very colorful as well. A spectacular
brilliant green satellite reentry earlier in the morning was the icing on
the visual feast!


No. 1

February 1979, Total Solar Eclipse. I've seen six totalities so far, and
they really are the ultimate experience. This one in Washington state was
my first, and the conditions and surroundings made it an overwhelming event
for me. I was on the flatlands just North of the Columbia river near the
town of Klickitat. The sky was 80%+ overcast, and I'd driven like a maniac
to position a rift in the cloud deck so that it would drift over the Sun at
the right time. I had even passed a highway patrol cruiser doing 95mph., as
fast as my old Fairlane could go! He didn't bother with me, undoutbly having
been told about all of the crazy astronomers in the area. I arrived at a
suitable position (the middle of the road) fifteen minutes before second
contact. The overcast sky was already ominously dark, with the crescent of
sun peeking past the edge of the gap and brilliantly illuminating the ground
with a very bluish tint. We piled out of the car and hastily set up our
scopes. I was barely ready when the brightness started fading with shocking
speed and the best shadow bands I've seen at any eclipse rippled past
slowly. I looked up from my camera right at the beginning of totality, to
see the diamond ring fade and reveal the corona. The sun was centered in the
gap in the overcast, low above the Eastern horizon, and the emotional sense
of being helpless and exposed before an overwhelming presense was sudden and
unexpected! The "Eye of God" effect is very powerful. There was a clear
band far to the South that was showing the snow on Mt. Hood reflecting a
brilliant orange with black clouds just above. The colors and contrast of
this eclipse remain the most spectacular visual memory I have.

Notice that all of these are unaided eye observations. I've seen many
wonderful sights through telescopes, but none made it above #4 on my
personal list! What are some of your best ones?

Jeff Schroeder

Jeff R. Schroeder wrote:

When you've been in amateur astronomy for a long time, (thirty years for
me) you collect a fair number of memorable observing experiences. A few
nights ago, I got to thinking about which ones were the standouts, the few
exceptional ones I'd pick above all others. This proved to be harder than
I anticipated, and I spent several pleasant hours going through the memory
banks.

Very inspiring reading!
Thanks for sharing.

Being a newbie myself I haven't much to share, but I'm deliriously happy
this morning because I caught my first acceptable picture of M3 last night.
Three previous nights with with nothing but failures makes it even better

There is really only one experience that outshines every other
astronomical observation - to experience the Earth's rotation out of
its orbital shadow .There is no such thing as Sunrise and it has no
astronomical meaning except for the dreariness of cataloguers and
theorists but is priceless for those who appreceate the majesty of the
cosmos,with or without a telescope.

Astronomers no longer exist,there are only cataloguers with no
pretension other than to turn what exists as we look out on the cosmos
into a celestial freak show.

wrote:
Astronomers no longer exist,there are only cataloguers with no
pretension other than to turn what exists as we look out on the
cosmos
into a celestial freak show.

I thought I TOLD you! Go he

http://www.userfriendly.org/illiad/wtf.jpg

;-)

Peace,
Rod

"RMOLLISE" wrote in message roups.com...
wrote:
Astronomers no longer exist,there are only cataloguers with no
pretension other than to turn what exists as we look out on the
cosmos
into a celestial freak show.

I thought I TOLD you! Go he

http://www.userfriendly.org/illiad/wtf.jpg

;-)

Peace,
Rod

What makes you a cataloguer is that not only do you not know what I am
explicitly stating you actually find it painful.

It is as though a massive joke was played on humanity with nobody
around to enjoy the punchline but every single day as cataloguers
remark on the motion of the Sun or sunrise/sunset or any geocentric
term the real experience of the Copernican insight is lost.

Cataloguers are harmless freaks who have no idea of the astronomical
heritage they inherit and what insights were destroyed in the late
17th century to make way for Newton's terrestial ballistics applied to
planetary motion,a concept so fundamentally wrong that I have to lump
it in with creationism.

Call yourselves astronomers but astronomers you are not and if nature
could spit you out it would.

Oriel36 wrote:
"RMOLLISE" wrote in message
roups.com...
wrote:
Astronomers no longer exist,there are only cataloguers with no
pretension other than to turn what exists as we look out on the
cosmos
into a celestial freak show.

I thought I TOLD you! Go he

http://www.userfriendly.org/illiad/wtf.jpg

;-)

Peace,
Rod

What makes you a cataloguer is that not only do you not know what I
am
explicitly stating you actually find it painful.

It is as though a massive joke was played on humanity with nobody
around to enjoy the punchline but every single day as cataloguers
remark on the motion of the Sun or sunrise/sunset or any geocentric
term the real experience of the Copernican insight is lost.

Cataloguers are harmless freaks who have no idea of the astronomical
heritage they inherit and what insights were destroyed in the late
17th century to make way for Newton's terrestial ballistics applied
to
planetary motion,a concept so fundamentally wrong that I have to lump
it in with creationism.

Call yourselves astronomers but astronomers you are not and if nature
could spit you out it would.


Long time no see, Gerald!

Crosspost to alt.astronomy more often.

Double-A

Double-A how the hell are ya !.

If you ever get a chance to go out at dawn and watch the Earth rotate
out of its orbital shadow then and only then will you appreceate the
insight of Copernicus and that changes everything.

I can't compete with the Newtonian guys and their cataloguer cronies
who think the orbital shadow sweeps across the planet hence sunrise and
sunset but there is always hope that there is an astronomer behind one
of these cataloguers struggling to get out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_%28solar%29

Tried as best as I could a few weeks ago to bring the real relevence
of the Equinox and the change in orbital orientation of the planet and
the real alignment with axial longitudes at 90 degrees to the Sun/Earth
line but obviously cataloguers still wish to see the Equinox as the
difference between some imaginary tilt of the Earth towards and away
from the Sun when everyone knows that the tilt of the Earth remains
almost stationary and fixed to Polaris.

The funniest or at least the most artistic way I've seen cataloguers
explain their odd sidereal creation is Wikipedia where the 23 hours 56
min 04 sec 'wraps around' as 24 hours and men think this is great,just
like creationists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_time

I sure as hell never imagined that things would have been allowed to
snowball out of control but I live a truly awful existence knowing
that the vast majority adhere to a concept far worse than creationism
and one that is presented to humanity as an 'achievement'.You will
recognise it every time somebody goes bananas over some perceived
motion of the Sun such as sunrise/sunset or the Equinox described in
hemispherical climatic divisions of summer/winter.Dear oh dear oh
dear....

my best moment in my 2 week long astronomical life was seeing the rings of
saturn, it was all i could think about for a day or so. Its just a pitty
thats theres so much light pollution and that i'm limited to such a small
section of the cosmos.

"Jeff R. Schroeder" wrote in message
k.net...
When you've been in amateur astronomy for a long time, (thirty years for
me) you collect a fair number of memorable observing experiences. A few
nights ago, I got to thinking about which ones were the standouts, the few
exceptional ones I'd pick above all others. This proved to be harder than
I anticipated, and I spent several pleasant hours going through the memory
banks.

These are my top three:

No. 3

March 1976, Comet West in the morning sky. The predawn sky was cold with
clearing scattered bands of clouds from Claremont, Ca. A winter rainstorm
had passed through the previous day and I was unsure if I would be able to
see anything when I got up at 4:00 AM.
I had only seen one previous comet, Bennett in 1970, and didn't know what
to expect from this one, as there was only a short viewing window between
when it rose and the start of dawn. I headed North toward the San Gabriel
mountain foothills with my binos and 35mm camera loaded with High Speed
Ektachrome. As I drove, I kept glancing East across the San Antonio wash
where there were scattered bright lights from the rock quarries. I had
gotten past most of them, but there was one unseen one that was throwing a
large fan of light into the sky. I was just getting annoyed that I wasn't
passing it, ....it seemed to be paralleling me....OHMIGAWD! I hit the
brakes and stopped in the middle of the road, got out and just stared as
the nucleus cleared the horizon. The tail of comet West was a banded wedge
filling a twenty degree angle, and nearly forty degrees long. There was a
streak of dark cloud cutting across the comet about five degrees above the
head which imparted a three dimensional sense to the scene. This
magnificent sight only lasted a few days, as the comet faded rapidly after
the breakup.


No. 2

2001 Leonids, fireball night. The only meteor shower that lived up to the
expectations of the little kid inside of me. They came in flurries of
sometimes two or three per second with an overall rate of 600+ per hour. I
was observing from Wrightwood, Ca. on top of a 7,500 ft. mountain with a
panoramic view over the Mojave desert to the North. Just as dawn was
starting, the radiant was overhead and the meteors were coming down
vertically all around the horizon. No matter what direction I looked, I
could see a decently bright meteor every two or three seconds. There
wasn't a breath of wind, and it was totally silent as I watched the sky
rain stars. I was still seeing an occasional one when the sky had
brightned to the point where I had lost second magnitude stars. Visibility
that morning was perfectly clear, and the dawn was very colorful as well.
A spectacular brilliant green satellite reentry earlier in the morning was
the icing on the visual feast!


No. 1

February 1979, Total Solar Eclipse. I've seen six totalities so far, and
they really are the ultimate experience. This one in Washington state was
my first, and the conditions and surroundings made it an overwhelming
event for me. I was on the flatlands just North of the Columbia river near
the town of Klickitat. The sky was 80%+ overcast, and I'd driven like a
maniac to position a rift in the cloud deck so that it would drift over
the Sun at the right time. I had even passed a highway patrol cruiser
doing 95mph., as fast as my old Fairlane could go! He didn't bother with
me, undoutbly having been told about all of the crazy astronomers in the
area. I arrived at a suitable position (the middle of the road) fifteen
minutes before second contact. The overcast sky was already ominously
dark, with the crescent of sun peeking past the edge of the gap and
brilliantly illuminating the ground with a very bluish tint. We piled out
of the car and hastily set up our scopes. I was barely ready when the
brightness started fading with shocking speed and the best shadow bands
I've seen at any eclipse rippled past slowly. I looked up from my camera
right at the beginning of totality, to see the diamond ring fade and
reveal the corona. The sun was centered in the gap in the overcast, low
above the Eastern horizon, and the emotional sense of being helpless and
exposed before an overwhelming presense was sudden and unexpected! The
"Eye of God" effect is very powerful. There was a clear band far to the
South that was showing the snow on Mt. Hood reflecting a brilliant orange
with black clouds just above. The colors and contrast of this eclipse
remain the most spectacular visual memory I have.

Notice that all of these are unaided eye observations. I've seen many
wonderful sights through telescopes, but none made it above #4 on my
personal list! What are some of your best ones?

Jeff Schroeder

Jeff R. Schroeder wrote:
No. 1
[snip]

February 1979, Total Solar Eclipse. I've seen six totalities so
far, and
they really are the ultimate experience. This one in Washington
state was
my first, and the conditions and surroundings made it an overwhelming
event
for me. I was on the flatlands just North of the Columbia river near
the
town of Klickitat. The sky was 80%+ overcast, and I'd driven like a
maniac
to position a rift in the cloud deck so that it would drift over the
Sun at
the right time. I had even passed a highway patrol cruiser doing
95mph., as
fast as my old Fairlane could go! He didn't bother with me, undoutbly
having
been told about all of the crazy astronomers in the area. I arrived
at a
suitable position (the middle of the road) fifteen minutes before
second
contact. The overcast sky was already ominously dark, with the
crescent of
sun peeking past the edge of the gap and brilliantly illuminating the
ground
with a very bluish tint. We piled out of the car and hastily set up
our
scopes. I was barely ready when the brightness started fading with
shocking
speed and the best shadow bands I've seen at any eclipse rippled past

slowly. I looked up from my camera right at the beginning of
totality, to
see the diamond ring fade and reveal the corona. The sun was centered
in the
gap in the overcast, low above the Eastern horizon, and the emotional
sense
of being helpless and exposed before an overwhelming presense was
sudden and
unexpected! The "Eye of God" effect is very powerful. There was a
clear
band far to the South that was showing the snow on Mt. Hood
reflecting a
brilliant orange with black clouds just above. The colors and
contrast of
this eclipse remain the most spectacular visual memory I have.

Notice that all of these are unaided eye observations. I've seen many

wonderful sights through telescopes, but none made it above #4 on my
personal list! What are some of your best ones?

Jeff Schroeder


I can remember the 1979 total eclipse quite well, even though I
couldn't directly see it. It was Feb. 26, I believe, at sometime after
8:00 AM. I was just south of the Columbia River at the time, toward
the western end of the gorge. I think it was overcast and probably too
soon after sunrise for the Sun to be high enough in the sky to see it
from our wooded area anyway. But I was delaying leaving for work to
see what would happen.

I remember as it began to grow dark, the birds in the woods that were
still doing their morning songs, started squawking with confusion, and
some launched into their evening songs. It grew completely dark again
for I don't remember how long. But I was totally impressed with just
that much, having never experienced a total eclipse before. Nor have I
seen one since, though plenty of partials.

As it started getting light again, the birds started into their morning
songs again, though some were still squawking in confusion after such
an unusually short "night"! As the sky grew bright, I headed of to
work, hoping my boss wouldn't ask why I was so late.

Double-A

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