When I started in this hobby as a kid, I used to take my Kmart 60MM into a Cemetery.
What weird places have you observed from?
Started by
Tom and Beth
, May 07 2013 06:38 PM
50 replies to this topic
#2
mich_al
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Cosmos
Posted 07 May 2013 - 06:57 PM
When I was a kid I wasn't brave enough to be in a Cemetery at night. Probably still am not.
#3
Tony Flanders
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ISS
Posted 07 May 2013 - 07:34 PM
The first one that comes to mind is Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve in India. We were in bungalows with lights, and it was a little unnerving seeing all the eyes staring back at me from the edge of the forest. Probably just jackals, but you never know. For once in my life, I was not tempted to walk away from the lights.
The observation deck of the Empire State Building was fun.
The observation deck of the Empire State Building was fun.
#4
Tom and Beth
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topic starter
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Skylab
Posted 07 May 2013 - 09:19 PM
Shucks, one place I rarely had to worry about somebody sneaking up on me.
#5
Tom and Beth
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topic starter
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Skylab
Posted 07 May 2013 - 09:20 PM
I could imagine what it must have been like to see eyes staring back at you. You COULD have been dinner for them!
#6
azure1961p
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Hubble
Posted 07 May 2013 - 09:30 PM
Cemetery to see shoemaker levy impacts.
Pete
Pete
#7
bunyon
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Fly Me to the Moon
Posted 07 May 2013 - 09:35 PM
Near a nuclear reactor tower. Downtown Baltimore. Parking area of a tiki bar. Next to the dumpsters at a Brazilian hotel. Cemetery (two to my credit, they're actually good places usually).
#8
roscoe
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curmudgeon
Posted 08 May 2013 - 01:48 AM
A 15 acre coral lump called Aiku Island in a remote area of the Pacific called Johnston Atoll, which was a 4-island Air Force and Coast Guard base (26 CG on Aiku) populated only by male military personnel.....where I was stationed for 14 months. Weird is an understatement.....
Russ
Russ
#9
bherv
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Surveyor 1
Posted 08 May 2013 - 05:20 AM
I observed a lunar eclipse from my local cemetery. I carried my 60mm scope almost a mile through the woods to get there. I observed the May 1994 annular eclipse from a roadside pull off in Vermont.
Barry
Barry
#10
cuivienor
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Vanguard
Posted 08 May 2013 - 05:53 AM
The outside emergency stairs at my company, in winter when the sun sets early, a few minutes at a time. Some have cigarette breaks. I have telescope breaks.
No wonder people think I am crazy! Especially since basically no one has used them since the earthquake in March 2011...
Yannick
No wonder people think I am crazy! Especially since basically no one has used them since the earthquake in March 2011...
Yannick
#11
Feidb
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Gemini
Posted 08 May 2013 - 08:43 AM
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma. We had buffalo wandering through the telescope field. You don't want to mess with them, trust me!
#12
tigerroach
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Apollo
Posted 08 May 2013 - 09:28 AM
We saw the solar eclipse last November from a cow pasture in Queensland, Australia. The cows were all penned up somewhere else, but there were plenty of land mines.
#13
Kevdog
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Kevin Williams Software
Posted 08 May 2013 - 12:47 PM
The edge of the Grand Canyon for the Solar Eclipse last May. You made sure to not move while looking through the welder's glass!
#14
orion61
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Vendor - Clear Edge Optical
Posted 08 May 2013 - 01:12 PM
we were 10,000 ft up in the Rocky Mountains. It was great untill a Summer Lightening Storm blew in, I mean FAST!
Lightning was all around, we were hugging the ground,
When I say ALL AROUND I mean it! At that altitude we were IN the Clouds. My Hair was standing up all over me.
It Scared the S***T out of us.
But I had never seen such transparent Air and good seeing
before or since!
I'd never torn a C14 down as fast as that day either!
12 Minutes, still a record.
Lightning was all around, we were hugging the ground,
When I say ALL AROUND I mean it! At that altitude we were IN the Clouds. My Hair was standing up all over me.
It Scared the S***T out of us.
But I had never seen such transparent Air and good seeing
before or since!
I'd never torn a C14 down as fast as that day either!
12 Minutes, still a record.
#15
csrlice12
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ISS
Posted 08 May 2013 - 01:14 PM
When I was a kid I wasn't brave enough to be in a Cemetery at night. Probably still am not.
"Want Brains!"
#16
csrlice12
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ISS
Posted 08 May 2013 - 01:16 PM
A 15 acre coral lump called Aiku Island in a remote area of the Pacific called Johnston Atoll, which was a 4-island Air Force and Coast Guard base (26 CG on Aiku) populated only by male military personnel.....where I was stationed for 14 months. Weird is an understatement.....
Russ
Knew a guy who was stationed there while in the Air Force...Weird doesn't even begin to describe him....
#17
SteveSMS
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Messenger
Posted 08 May 2013 - 01:21 PM
The Missus and I watched a Venus transit from the Seaside Heights, NJ boardwalk.
#18
jchaller
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Apollo
Posted 08 May 2013 - 01:26 PM
I viewed from the top of a old army observation tower - not from the deck, but from the roof of the shack at the top. About 110 feet above the ground and no handrail. Sometimes, teenage boys do stupid things.
#19
GeneT
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Ely Kid
Posted 08 May 2013 - 06:19 PM
Ely, Nevada; Las Vegas, Nevada; Death Valley.
#20
jeff heck
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Apollo
Posted 08 May 2013 - 06:37 PM
My current favorite observing site in central Kansas. 
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#21
City Kid
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Soyuz
Posted 08 May 2013 - 06:39 PM
That looks like a cool place as long as the only faint fuzzies you see are in the eyepiece.My current favorite observing site in central Kansas.
#22
David Pavlich
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Transmographied
Posted 08 May 2013 - 09:44 PM
Shortly after Barbara bought my first scope (60mm Meade refractor), there was a lunar eclipse. There were so many trees around our home that we popped the scope into the ole' PT Cruiser and went to a very light polluted realtor's parking lot to watch. We had two different patrol cars stop to see what we were up to. A little strange, but sure doesn't beat the cemetery! 
I wonder if Barnubus Collins came to the outreach?
David
I wonder if Barnubus Collins came to the outreach? David
#23
Oscar56
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Apollo
Posted 08 May 2013 - 09:51 PM
My current favorite observing site in central Kansas.
I have just started to work on my family genealogy. This would be a very fun project to photograph a scope on the vicinity of their burial plot.
#24
Adam Taylor
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Ranger 4
Posted 08 May 2013 - 10:36 PM
Enjoyed the 1999 total solar eclipse from a topless beach in Eastern Europe. Just three months later, watched the Leonids Meteor Storm while lying in the bottom of a bomb crater in the Kuwaiti desert. Life is good!
#25
Jon Isaacs
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ISS
Posted 08 May 2013 - 11:33 PM
Great thread, interesting and definitely exotic places...
For me, nothing too special. I think it was last year I setup a couple of scopes on La Jolla Hyatt Regency's swimming pool deck for some public out reach, I got to that meet astronaut Scott Altman.. it was pretty fancy and there were lots of people to look through the scopes.
About the only other unusual place was Mulholland Drive over looking the San Fernando Valley.. My wife had been hired to perform her Japanese Bamboo Flute music at the home of film producer Joel Silver and I had driven up with her from San Diego. I took along a 70mm or 80mm refractor and I had about 3 hours to kill so I found a spot up on the hill and setup. As I recall, there was so much light pollution that I basically couldn't see anything..
Jon
For me, nothing too special. I think it was last year I setup a couple of scopes on La Jolla Hyatt Regency's swimming pool deck for some public out reach, I got to that meet astronaut Scott Altman.. it was pretty fancy and there were lots of people to look through the scopes.
About the only other unusual place was Mulholland Drive over looking the San Fernando Valley.. My wife had been hired to perform her Japanese Bamboo Flute music at the home of film producer Joel Silver and I had driven up with her from San Diego. I took along a 70mm or 80mm refractor and I had about 3 hours to kill so I found a spot up on the hill and setup. As I recall, there was so much light pollution that I basically couldn't see anything..
Jon
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