What's the most memorable astronomy event/object seen?

[Canopus Lim]

Hi all,

It seems that there is an increase in equipment talk during these horrible months. To promote more 'A' (Albert) topics, we can discuss on this:
What is the most memorable astronomy event/ object you have seen and like to share?

To start the ball rolling...
One memorable event was in 1999 during my army daze (days.. but served like in a daze) when I was in Thailand for army training, I saw the Leonid meteor shower. At that time I did not know anything about astronomy and it was my first time seeing shooting stars. I saw many shooting stars those nights and saw a few fireballs. There was one huge fireball (really look like a big flaming object) that I saw. It flew for probably about a second and it was very memorable looking at that. I could not believe my eyes! It was because of this Leonid meteor shower that I started reading up on astronomy and buying the stuff and learning astronomy by myself.

Other memorable objects was like looking at the Pleiades (7 sisters) open clusters for the first time with my binoculars. It was really beautiful. Other objects I liked is Saturn which looked like a 'cartoon planet' on my C5.

The most memorable nightsky was in Yosemite National park (USA) where I saw the clearest (most transparent) sky. The milkyway was GLOWING.. and not like a cloud as seen from average Mersing skies. It is transparent because there is ZERO clouds. The entire sky is dark blue in the day time.. which means superb transparency in the night. However that only occurs during Summer.

[ariefm71]

For me, it's the two Total Solar Eclipses i've seen: 1983 (Java) and 1988 (Palembang), Halley's comet in between (that's a bit of dissappointment, though), and my first Mersing trip two years ago.

[jermng]

Total Solar Eclipse, Oct 24, 1995. Kudat, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia.

[jiahao1986]

1996:
Perseids, my first meteor shower.

1997:
(1). Comet Hale-Bopp
(2). My first Partial Solar Eclispe on Mar. 9th
(3). My first Total Lunar Eclipse on Sep. 17th

1998-2000:
Observing the Leonids continuously, no storm observed, still memorable.

2001:
(1). Observing the Total Lunar Eclipse on Jan. 10th when the temperature was -28 degrees, painful but still enjoyable.
(2). Finally the Leonids storm with ZHR up to 3400. Took tons of photos and one of them got published on the most popular astronomy magazine <Amateur Astronomers>

2002:
Five major planets lined up in dusk twilight on the first half of May. Took some beautiful photos.

2003:
(1). Several 'semi' naked-eye comets at the beginning of the year. Chasing comet NEAT(C/2002 V1) for 3 months, the most memorable and last view of it was on Feb. 13 when the comet was shinning will a tail in strong orange dusk twilight with my 7x50 bino.
(2). Comet Ikeya-Zhang, Chinese amateurs' first comet. Visible with naked eye and showed beatiful long tail in scopes.

2004:
(1). Two comets LINEAR(C/2002 T7) and NEAT(C/2001 Q4), which are expected to reach mag. 1 in May. However, both of them ended up near mag. 3. Still nice memory chasing them for months.
(2). SN2004 et in NGC6946, the first supernova I managed to observe. Surprisingly the magnitude of it is 12.8 and I was using a 3-inch refractor!
Couldn't imagine I was watching a star in another galaxy using such a small scope...

2005:
(1). Mag. 3th comet Machholz(C/2004 Q2) at the beginning of the year. Great views when it passed by M44 and M45. Also the first comet that I could see the color - green - even with naked eye, amazing~~~
(2). On Sep. 25th, UFO observed! It was like a "helix comet" shining at mag. -4, moving slowing from east to west and lasting for more than 5 minutes. I attached a photo taked by an Chinese amateur to show you how it looked like



Still many events I didn't mention here(cannot remember all of them in one time), now hope my astronomy experience in Singapore will be as nice as in China

[VinSnr]

1996:
Perseids, my first meteor shower.

1997:
(1). Comet Hale-Bopp
(2). My first Partial Solar Eclispe on Mar. 9th
(3). My first Total Lunar Eclipse on Sep. 17th

1998-2000:
Observing the Leonids continuously, no storm observed, still memorable.

2001:
(1). Observing the Total Lunar Eclipse on Jan. 10th when the temperature was -28 degrees, painful but still enjoyable.
(2). Finally the Leonids storm with ZHR up to 3400. Took tons of photos and one of them got published on the most popular astronomy magazine <Amateur Astronomers>

2002:
Five major planets lined up in dusk twilight on the first half of May. Took some beautiful photos.

2003:
(1). Several 'semi' naked-eye comets at the beginning of the year. Chasing comet NEAT(C/2002 V1) for 3 months, the most memorable and last view of it was on Feb. 13 when the comet was shinning will a tail in strong orange dusk twilight with my 7x50 bino.
(2). Comet Ikeya-Zhang, Chinese amateurs' first comet. Visible with naked eye and showed beatiful long tail in scopes.

2004:
(1). Two comets LINEAR(C/2002 T7) and NEAT(C/2001 Q4), which are expected to reach mag. 1 in May. However, both of them ended up near mag. 3. Still nice memory chasing them for months.
(2). SN2004 et in NGC6946, the first supernova I managed to observe. Surprisingly the magnitude of it is 12.8 and I was using a 3-inch refractor!
Couldn't imagine I was watching a star in another galaxy using such a small scope...

2005:
(1). Mag. 3th comet Machholz(C/2004 Q2) at the beginning of the year. Great views when it passed by M44 and M45. Also the first comet that I could see the color - green - even with naked eye, amazing~~~
(2). On Sep. 25th, UFO observed! It was like a "helix comet" shining at mag. -4, moving slowing from east to west and lasting for more than 5 minutes. I attached a photo taked by an Chinese amateur to show you how it looked like



Still many events I didn't mention here(cannot remember all of them in one time), now hope my astronomy experience in Singapore will be as nice as in China

Brother, you are suppose to say only the MOST memorable one....

For me, definitely it's Halley's comet in 1986. Woke up at 5am with sleepy eyes, sneaked out to my car porch and saw an object with a freaking long tail staring right at me.

[ian0138]

For me, it was early this year when I was testing my newly purchase binoviewer on the full moon. Suddenly something was crossing the face of the moon, initially I thought it was a bird but there is no wing, and it was wobbling on axis, then on closer look it was a satelite crossing the face on the moon (or maybe a space junk). It was tack sharp and I can actually see details of the satelite structure.......I was like "WOW" for that few seconds...

[rlow]

There was one great night late last year when I observed Saturn through a friend's AstroPhysics 6" f/12 Superplanetary APO. The image of Saturn at 600x was so big and ultra-sharp, with no image quivering at all. Colours were bright and vivid, with several distinct bands on the planet, exactly like a Voyager photograph. The Encke division was clearly visible and distinct, and the C ring was so bright and with a sharp definite inner edge. There was a jet-black sky background between the C ring and the planet itself. I did a search for spokes and light minima but did not observe any. But frankly, I had never ever seen Saturn better than that in three decades! Indeed, I cannot adequately described to you that great, intense and emotional feeling inside my mind and body while I was observing Saturn like that! It was one of those very very rare nights with near-perfect seeing, and my friend had only seen such nights only three times in the last twenty five years or so. Incidentally, I had initially invited David Lian to join us but he declined, and I felt it is most unfortunate that he did not share that great moment with us.

[ariefm71]

You'll see better Saturn image next year with your 15 incher. If not, you can return back the mirror to CZ. Better order the platform now.

[aquillae]

It was 2001 Leonids for me.

Typical rainy and cloudy Seattle during the weekdays was really discouraging, but amazingly the sky cleared up on Saturday afternoon up until Sunday morning around 4-5AM (what a nice and lucky break!).

My friend, along with his wife and another friend, gave me a ride there and we drove about 30-40mins away from Seattle to an observing spot at North Bend. The place was crowded when we arrived there, so we had to park quite far away and hiked up the hilltop (the best spot, less obstructions).

WoW..it was a really great show!! Shooting stars everywhere, and I saw a really bright fireball which illuminated the ground and left a smoky trail of debris up to about 5 mins until the trail dissipated away.

People told me to make a wish everytime I see a shooting star, but that night, I wish I prepared a longer wishlist! (totally lost track on the count).

I also brought a camera hoping to capture the event, but since I didnt have my own digital/manual camera with "Bulb" (long exposure) function, I had to borrow my brother's cam. I wasn't quite familiar on how to use his camera, but I tried it anyway. I setup the camera on the chair pointed up to the zenith and pressed down the shutter. Suddenly, a bright flash !!! (unfortunatelly it was from the camera, not a Leonids fireball ;-P) blinded me and some spectators nearby :oops: (there goes our eyes dark adaptation ) . I found out that I forgot to changed the camera setting to manual Bulb, so it was still on auto and it turned on the flash. It was really embarassing and I felt really bad...

That's my most memorable moment. Both are one of the greatest show and one of my most embarassing moment in my life

[jiahao1986]

1996:
Perseids, my first meteor shower.

1997:
(1). Comet Hale-Bopp
(2). My first Partial Solar Eclispe on Mar. 9th
(3). My first Total Lunar Eclipse on Sep. 17th

1998-2000:
Observing the Leonids continuously, no storm observed, still memorable.

2001:
(1). Observing the Total Lunar Eclipse on Jan. 10th when the temperature was -28 degrees, painful but still enjoyable.
(2). Finally the Leonids storm with ZHR up to 3400. Took tons of photos and one of them got published on the most popular astronomy magazine <Amateur Astronomers>

2002:
Five major planets lined up in dusk twilight on the first half of May. Took some beautiful photos.

2003:
(1). Several 'semi' naked-eye comets at the beginning of the year. Chasing comet NEAT(C/2002 V1) for 3 months, the most memorable and last view of it was on Feb. 13 when the comet was shinning will a tail in strong orange dusk twilight with my 7x50 bino.
(2). Comet Ikeya-Zhang, Chinese amateurs' first comet. Visible with naked eye and showed beatiful long tail in scopes.

2004:
(1). Two comets LINEAR(C/2002 T7) and NEAT(C/2001 Q4), which are expected to reach mag. 1 in May. However, both of them ended up near mag. 3. Still nice memory chasing them for months.
(2). SN2004 et in NGC6946, the first supernova I managed to observe. Surprisingly the magnitude of it is 12.8 and I was using a 3-inch refractor!
Couldn't imagine I was watching a star in another galaxy using such a small scope...

2005:
(1). Mag. 3th comet Machholz(C/2004 Q2) at the beginning of the year. Great views when it passed by M44 and M45. Also the first comet that I could see the color - green - even with naked eye, amazing~~~
(2). On Sep. 25th, UFO observed! It was like a "helix comet" shining at mag. -4, moving slowing from east to west and lasting for more than 5 minutes. I attached a photo taked by an Chinese amateur to show you how it looked like



Still many events I didn't mention here(cannot remember all of them in one time), now hope my astronomy experience in Singapore will be as nice as in China

Brother, you are suppose to say only the MOST memorable one....

For me, definitely it's Halley's comet in 1986. Woke up at 5am with sleepy eyes, sneaked out to my car porch and saw an object with a freaking long tail staring right at me.

haha, for me, there is not a single event that is definitely MOST memorable, these are the events relatively more memorable in my mind as I can remember them immediately la~~~