what is your most fascinating naked eye night sky object?

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Sat May 16, 2009 11:08 am

Fireballs! They are sudden, brilliant and spectacular, with crackling sounds and green/red trailers, much much better than meteors. But it is all over in a few seconds. I only managed to see about five fantastic fireballs so far.

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Sat May 16, 2009 2:44 pm

So cool that you all are so much more experienced and have seen so many things. [smilie=beaten.gif]

The most fascinating naked eye object is still the Milky Way for me. When I first spotted Omega Centuri that was cool too, as well as the Pleiades's and the Orion Nebula. [smilie=ahaaah.gif]

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sat May 16, 2009 2:50 pm

For me is NGC3532, once I saw it under a very clear sky and I spend hours looking at it with the 25x100 bino.

Post by **weixing** » Sat May 16, 2009 7:06 pm

Hi,

Clifford60 wrote:For me is NGC3532, once I saw it under a very clear sky and I spend hours looking at it with the 25x100 bino.

Err... not fair leh... it's should be naked eye.

Anyway, for me is the summer Milky Way in Mersing... span 180 degree... horizon to horizon... breathtaking!! [smilie=wow.gif]

Have a nice day.

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Sun May 17, 2009 12:29 am

Oops, ya hor, naked eye object, then it should be Milky Way in Mersing

starfinder · Post by **starfinder** » Sun May 17, 2009 12:32 pm

For me, its the Milky Way centred in the Sagittarius area with the two side arms. When you see it stretch about 150 or more degrees as at Mersing/Sedili on a cloud-free night, you really get a good sense that we on Earth are "here" and looking inwards "there".

And on a good night when the contrast is high you can see lots of individual clouds and dark bands in it. And it's so vast!

Wish I've seen more fireballs though.

And more comets. The best comet I've seen was Hale-Bopp, a bright naked-eye object I saw almost everyday for weeks in around April 1997. I even saw it clearly between street lamps whilst standing below them. Wish I had seen Hyakutake clearly and also McNaught. Hyakutake I saw once only very faintly from an urban centre with a 8x25mm compact bino. Wasn't into astronomy then or I would have taken a trip to a rural area. Halley I saw from Singapore in 1986 through a small refractor. Looked like a cotton ball, that's all; but I did get to see it.

Have not seen aurora yet. I think that's the next "astro" object I would like to see.

And I bet if lightning was very rare, like total solar eclipses, we would leap for joy and wonder if we got to see it. But few people bother bec it's so common. Same with clouds. Nobody bothers about them bec they're commonplace. So I suppose fascination and wonder partly arise from rarity and perception.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Mon May 18, 2009 12:29 am

Fireballs. Large ones with smoke trails, saw one that broken up to 2 separate fireballs. Saw also a bright green fireball.

Also not to mention the Milky Way in its full glory in very dark sites and the countless stars seen using binoculars... until I wonder where is the star cluster..