Any Astronomy Buffs Here?

[duketaylor]

As a kid, and a son-of-a-gun at that, we lived in DC (Wheaton Woods) when I was 7 or 8, so 1969, 1970. My dad and I were in the backyard with his telescope looking at different objects when something strange happened.

While planes were coming and going, an object appeared in the sky, to us just a single light quite far off in the distance. It hovered, then made a series of very sharp turns and twists (zig-zagging) for several seconds before disappearing out-of-sight at a very high rate of speed. I didn't know any better that this was unusual, but my dad, being an Annapolis grad, knew this was beyond strange and called the Navy (observatory?) to report it. Don't remember ever hearing anything more about this sighting. Summer time.

To this day, I can picture what I saw and have always been fascinated with the Heavens. Complete believer in visits from other worlds. Watch lots of UFO shows.

Never seen anything close to that bizarre since.

I do have an uncle claiming to have seen a(n) UFO out on his family's farm in Goochland County in the 60's. But he's done plenty of drugs, so I question it-a little.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I do have another Astronomy/Duke/Basketball story.. Bob Bender transferred from Indiana to Duke and was on the Varsity Basketball team at both schools. He was taking Astronomy at Indiana, but dropped out (or took an incomplete) just before he transferred. He then took the Astronomy course at Duke when he came to Duke; it was part of the Physics Department curriculum. The strange part of it, for Bob was that the teacher of the course in Indiana was the same guy who taught it at Duke. The professor transferred that summer. I would have loved to find out what Bob's reaction was when he walked in the door that first day. I used to play cards on Friday nights with the Astronomy professor..

The Bob Bender info, very Twilight Zone-ish

Stalker!!
Next North American total eclipse is in 2024, going through Niagara Falls. (And a bunch of the rest of the country.)
We went to Charleston for the last one, and saw some, but never totality as a thunderstorm for the ages came up on us right at the worst moment. I'm still drying out my shoes from that day.
We are hoping to make a camping trip to Niagara in 4 years.

[CameronBornAndBred]

As a kid, and a son-of-a-gun at that, we lived in DC (Wheaton Woods) when I was 7 or 8, so 1969, 1970. My dad and I were in the backyard with his telescope looking at different objects when something strange happened.

While planes were coming and going, an object appeared in the sky, to us just a single light quite far off in the distance. It hovered, then made a series of very sharp turns and twists (zig-zagging) for several seconds before disappearing out-of-sight at a very high rate of speed. I didn't know any better that this was unusual, but my dad, being an Annapolis grad, knew this was beyond strange and called the Navy (observatory?) to report it. Don't remember ever hearing anything more about this sighting. Summer time.

To this day, I can picture what I saw and have always been fascinated with the Heavens. Complete believer in visits from other worlds. Watch lots of UFO shows.

Never seen anything close to that bizarre since.

I do have an uncle claiming to have seen a(n) UFO out on his family's farm in Goochland County in the 60's. But he's done plenty of drugs, so I question it-a little.

Very cool story.

[OldPhiKap]

Stalker!!
Next North American total eclipse is in 2024, going through Niagara Falls. (And a bunch of the rest of the country.)
We went to Charleston for the last one, and saw some, but never totality as a thunderstorm for the ages came up on us right at the worst moment. I'm still drying out my shoes from that day.
We are hoping to make a camping trip to Niagara in 4 years.

We were in the 90% eclipse zone. I was skeptical of driving to see the total eclipse -- how much different could it really be?

Decided to drive about an hour north towards Clemson to see it as a total eclipse. Wow.

I am totally planning on Niagara/viscinity in 2024.

[-jk]

We were in western SC for totality at the last one. It was amazing.

The traffic after not so much...

-jk

[camion]

We were in western SC for totality at the last one. It was amazing.

The traffic after not so much...

-jk

Geez. Some friends and I were by the lake at Furman University for the last one. We found a shady spot under the trees to wait for it while much of the campus was in the football stadium listening to a talk from a physics professor who was an astronomer. I'm sure it was a good talk, but the stadium was sunny and hot. We were much cooler by the lake and we got to see the waterfowl, ducks, geese, swans rouse after the eclipse passed.

I believe the next one goes through Tennessee, not a long trek from SC.

[OldPhiKap]

We were in western SC for totality at the last one. It was amazing.

The traffic after not so much...

-jk

Geez. Some friends and I were by the lake at Furman University for the last one.

We were in Newberry. And yes, the traffic back was tough but could be worse.

[Phredd3]

Decided to drive about an hour north towards Clemson to see it as a total eclipse. Wow.

I am totally planning on Niagara/viscinity in 2024.

I was on the Clemson campus with my entire family, and so glad we made the trip, even though our ancient minivan broke down on the way home and caused us an unexpected overnight delay and an extra missed day of work. That was a memorable trip for everyone. We received a photograph of it from an excellent photographer who had setup right next to us and was willing to share, and we have since made a few items of memorabilia from that photo.

For 2024, we plan to go somewhere, but we aren't sure where, yet. Likely somewhere in Texas or Arkansas, where the duration of totality will be at it's peak - over four minutes in some places.

[DevilHorse]

I do have an uncle claiming to have seen a(n) UFO out on his family's farm in Goochland County in the 60's. But he's done plenty of drugs, so I question it-a little.

The head secretary at the physics department at Duke, for many years, was Mrs. Gooch.
She had a major diverging strabismus. Very disconcerting.
She was very kind.

The plot thickens.

Larry
DevilHorse

[budwom]

I love Astronomy and should mention that I'm a Gemini...

[CameronBornAndBred]

Last night was pretty cool just to look up. I didn't take my scopes out, but in one small chunk of the sky the moon had both Jupiter and Saturn on either side of it; they looked like smaller moons in orbit around the big one.

[LegoBatman]

Heard about this on the news. The clouds cleared enough after midnight to see the moon and I think Jupiter. Light pollution sure doesn't help.

My 5 year old is into space right now and we've toyed with the idea of getting him a telescope for Christmas or his next birthday. Not sure how much we would see based on our location and with a low budget/kids telescope.

[CameronBlue]

Cool thread. Two of my clients are the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope projects. The GMT is under construction in Chile with date of first light scheduled for 2029 (after several postponements). The construction of the TMT which will be sited in Hawaii atop Mauna Kea is a study in civics as the project has encountered opposition from the Native Hawaiian community including actor Jason Momoa. The GMT and TMT are a class of extremely large telescope (ELT). ELTs (not to be confused with the European Southern Observatory's ELT) are typically large telescopes with primary mirrors exceeding 20 meters.

www.gmto.org
www.tmt.org

[wilson]

We were in the 90% eclipse zone. I was skeptical of driving to see the total eclipse -- how much different could it really be?

Decided to drive about an hour north towards Clemson to see it as a total eclipse. Wow.

I am totally planning on Niagara/viscinity in 2024.

We were in western SC for totality at the last one. It was amazing.

The traffic after not so much...

-jk

I chaperoned a school trip to the northeastern Georgia mountains to experience totality. The traffic afterward was horrific, turning a ~2-hour return trip into something more like 9 hours.
It was still one of the coolest experiences of my life and I regret nothing.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Full moon shot from tonight. (It's a video, so if isn't moving, click the image.)

This is with my NexImage 5 camera and 8" dobsonian. Having fun playing with both.

[Phredd3]

Couldn't see the video, but munged the link and headed over to FB. Really nice!

[camion]

Couldn't see the video, but munged the link and headed over to FB. Really nice!

I couldn't see it at first. It took a while to download apparently.

That's one big scarred rock up there.

[Wander]

Might wanna try looking at Venus soon...

[House P]

My wife and I are headed up to northern Maine this weekend for some camping. I just realized that there is a new moon tonight, so I am hopeful that the stargazing will be pretty decent. I wouldn't classify myself as an "astronomy buff", so I have a couple questions for the folks here.

1. Is there anything happening in the night sky this weekend that I should look for?

2. Can anyone recommend a night sky guide phone app that works without cell or wifi reception (if such a thing exists)?

3. Should I take along a pair of binoculars? It is about a 3 mile backpack to the campsite. I am not opposed to taking along a bit of extra weight, but don't want to lug around something that ends up being pointless.

[bundabergdevil]

My wife and I are headed up to northern Maine this weekend for some camping. I just realized that there is a new moon tonight, so I am hopeful that the stargazing will be pretty decent. I wouldn't classify myself as an "astronomy buff", so I have a couple questions for the folks here.

1. Is there anything happening in the night sky this weekend that I should look for?

2. Can anyone recommend a night sky guide phone app that works without cell or wifi reception (if such a thing exists)?

3. Should I take along a pair of binoculars? It is about a 3 mile backpack to the campsite. I am not opposed to taking along a bit of extra weight, but don't want to lug around something that ends up being pointless.

You mean like a book?