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Anonymous
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As I went out to the car tonight for a journey down to the shops, I noticed we had a few gaps in the clouds. Since we've been clouded in for the past week and Orion happened to be in the clear, I decided to take a quick 10 minute look at M42 since the moon hadn't risen and with our weather this past month, it could be some time before I got another chance. I raced into the house and grabbed the Obie 20x90s and my handy mount as I call it. My "handie mount" consists of a 8" square denim bag made from a portion cut out of the leg of an old pair of jeans and 3/4 filled with barley. I use this on the roof of the car and bury the Obies down into the bag just the way you'd fall into a beanbag. This is extremely steady especially for terrestial viewing and since Orion was still low in the sky it worked out well. I had a look at the belt and then moved down to M42 and was enjoying the view when straight across from West to East and right through the Nebula cruised a pale orange point of light. Obviously a satellite I was able to follow it for the next ten seconds as it went on it's way and gradually lost the sunlight into the East. I know it's hardly a life-changing experience but it sure put a smile on my face as I reboxed the binos.
Regards Alfie
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brocknroller
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/16/03
Posts: 1517
Loc: Liberal, Kansas
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when i saw this heading, i was wondering "what's it all about, alfie?"  sorry, couldn't resist.
i've also seen satellites "go through" messiers and even across the moon. it's always a pleasant surprise, and i end up following the satellite to see what other objects it might "transit". more often i see high flying jets or bats pass by while i'm observing.
your bean bag mount sounds interesting. i'm always looking for "cheaper, faster, better" ways to mount my bins and i have used my skywindow on my car. how high can you see with the bean bag mount? i was thinking that you might be able to sit in the car and stick your head out the window while holding onto the bins and go almost to the zenith. might even be comfortable with a pillow flung over the window about half way up.
no, not that comfortable! just tried it. perhaps if i had a bean bag chair on the seat, it might work better.
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Oscar Zoroaster Diggs
"O.Z."
#########################################
"And remember, my sentimental friend....a heart is not judged by how much you love,
but by how much you are loved by others."
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Tom L
Reged: 01/07/04
Posts: 29817
Loc: Sunny Oregon
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Good one, brock!
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Tom 
Tele Vue 102mm f/8.6 on an EzTouch
Vixen 80mm f/5 A80SSWT on a grab-n-go mount
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KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 10163
Loc: Lancashire UK
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It is perhaps typical of my penchant for stating the obvious for me to have even considered the following point.
I have noticed that the more time one spends actually out there looking through optical instruments , or even just naked eye observing , the more of these "moments" one seems to have !
Consequently I haven't enjoyed such a moment for a little while now , although I CAN remember us having a clear night once in North West England when I was a youngster :-)
After all there all a hell of a lot of satellites flying around up there , which incidentally can be pre -checked for " estimated time of arrival" on a great site entitled "heavensabove.com"
The predicted arrival times I find to be far more accurate than those of the British Rail network !
I suppose the cyber equivalent of a "moment" is when one is just in the process of enjoying reading an article or post when a fly lands on the PC screen :-)
On a less jocular note ,one of my favourite "moments" of the celestial kind occured about 23 years ago.
Having paid a social visit to friends , somehow our conversation had got round to astronomy -related topics , which was VERY unusual for the company we were amongst.
Just as we were leaving our friends' house around midnight
we noticed how clear the skies had become and naturally all took a few moments to gaze in wonderment at a few examples of what we had been just been discussing.
Had I been alone I would have I thought I was hallucinating as what looked like a combination of a huge firework display and the lighting from a Pink Floyd concert seemd to commence at that very moment from a roughly south -westerly direction ,in the vicinity of Orion , which apart from the Plough was the only constellation we knew the name of between the four of us at that time.
I know the names of about EIGHT now :-)
All four present stood speechless watching this little "display" without a clue between us as to what the source was.
We read the following day in a newspaper that it was some kind of very rare "meteor storm" or something of the kind.
Since my vague interest in things celestial was re -kindled about 8 years ago ,I have actually tried to find out a few
times just what this was and if anyone remembers it , but to no avail.
I remember it was around New Year time , but none of my astronomy books would indicate activity that would be seen in that direction at that time of year.
Anyway , I'm classifying that as one of my big "moments" :-)
Clear skies --Kenny
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If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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your bean bag mount sounds interesting. i'm always looking for "cheaper, faster, better" ways to mount my bins and i have used my skywindow on my car. how high can you see with the bean bag mount? i was thinking that you might be able to sit in the car and stick your head out the window while holding onto the bins and go almost to the zenith. might even be comfortable with a pillow flung over the window about half way up.
Brock, make sure you have those bino's strapped to some part of your anatomy as you're sure to fall asleep with that pillow
As far as the beanbag goes, I can't quite reach zenith with it but you can get quite high up depending on how high the object is that the bag is resting on and you can hold the bag and the bino's together when viewing very high. Works best when the weight of the bino's presses down and deforms the bag. For quick looks I've used the beanbag slopped over a tripod head and the bino's held firm with my hands over the bag.
Alfie
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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After all there all a hell of a lot of satellites flying around up there , which incidentally can be pre -checked for " estimated time of arrival" on a great site entitled "heavensabove.com"
I havn't tried that site Kenny but a couple of years ago I did try a site (the name escapes me now) which predicted the
path and arrival times of all or most of the sats to pass my position on the globe on any particular night. This was done in real time and gave the name of the sat as well as the time/position and direction it was going when it caught the sunlight. It was late summer and I spent an enjoyable night with a small torch and compass and running out and in from the computer every 10 mins or so checking for the next sat prediction. It was amazing how many objects passed over that night, sometimes 2 sats could be viewed at the same time. I've always meant to borrow a laptop and try this again sometime. No running in and out the next time as I'll just lie on my back on a sunlounger and enjoy the view 
Alfie
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brocknroller
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/16/03
Posts: 1517
Loc: Liberal, Kansas
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alfie -- i'm still trying to picture how you could use the bean bag on top of your car without a rubber neck.  aside from the crazy position i mentioned, which even at 6'4" would not be easy for me, the only way i can image using a bean bag comfortably with bins is to put it on the ground and lie down on my back with my head on the bean bag with the bins resting above my head. then by digging my head in deeper, i could move the bins higher in the sky. if you have a digital camera, please post a photo of you and your bean bag in action.
kenny -- that fireworks display could have been orionids fireballs. meteor showers peak early in the morning around 4-5 a.m. however, there are sometimes bright fireballs around 9 p.m. the night before. you get a group those together, and it would look like fireworks. given all the strange unexplained phenomena that happens in the UK (an large number of UFO sightings), i have to wonder if something else wasn't going on that night. check the back of your neck for an implant. 
one magic moment in sky phenomena i can share was when i was flying home from colorado. it was about 5 p.m. and the sun was getting low. i looked out my window and saw a "glory" (a round rainbow) floating over the cloudbank. the colors were more pastel than a normal rainbow (the glory was created by the lensing effect of the airplane). the glory was flattened out on the cloud tops and took the shape of the clouds as it seemed to be traveling over them and changing colors as different parts of the glory became visible. at the same time, a hasidic jew dressed in black was standng at the escape hatch window bobbing up and down and chanting in hebrew (it may have been friday night, not sure), which combined with the unsual site of the glory gave me a mystical feeling that's hard to put into words. no, i did not have one of those small bottles of booze they serve on airplanes! definitely "one of those moments"
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Oscar Zoroaster Diggs
"O.Z."
#########################################
"And remember, my sentimental friend....a heart is not judged by how much you love,
but by how much you are loved by others."
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Rusty
Postmaster
Reged: 08/06/03
Posts: 16419
Loc: Brooker, FL
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I picure Alfie's car a '57 Ford Skyliner, and by laying in the trunk and putting his beanbag on the partially-retracted hardtop, it's a perfect angle 
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I've been in worse positions in this old car, believe me Rusty 
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
your bean bag mount sounds interesting. i'm always looking for "cheaper, faster, better" ways to mount my bins and i have used my skywindow on my car. how high can you see with the bean bag mount? i was thinking that you might be able to sit in the car and stick your head out the window while holding onto the bins and go almost to the zenith. might even be comfortable with a pillow flung over the window about half way up.
Brock, I've finally taken a few photo's of the "Bean Bag" terrestial mount. I could do with a bigger bag now that I've got the 20x90s. This one is filled with barley but any small particles can be used as long as they are quite heavy. I'm going to try a bag filled with the small grit as used for the bottom of a tropical fish tank.
Photo's here... http://www.cloudynights.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=1552&cat=500
Don't be trying the elevated position with that back of yours Brock
Cheers Alfie
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