Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any Night Sky Watchers?

I spend a lot of my nights off sitting in a lawn chair and casually checking out the sky...
No telescope, at least not yet. I do make good use of my leupie binoculars.

Seen a few cool things, a few weird things... But mostly I relax and reflect on weighty matters that no one will ever recall after I'm gone.

I do get a kick out of shooting stars. Especially the occasional really bright or long ones that traverses the entire sky...

Fascinated by both satellites and aircraft. We have a regular visitor that I believe is a daily UPS run. A fair sized jet that passes nightly at about the same course, time and low altitude.

Mostly I sit and drink iced tea, or coffee. Occasionally on the frostier nights I'll do a hot cocoa. And once in a while, in the summer, a beer or two.

Who else stays up like that?

Used to do it a lot when younger. We would sit outside every night as teenagers. Nowadays I've got to get my sleep. My kids don't sleep in, ever.

But I definitely get you. Still do it when backpacking. I'll probably do it every night when the boys are all grown up.

No reason to this time of year here.

In the winter, I'll look when the sky is favorable. But when it's favorable to viewing, it's not favorable to staying out gazing.

The sky is clearest with high pressure and that generally means c o l d in the winter.

Meteor showers seem to be really late at night (1 - 4 AM) here and often occurring with overcast skies

some of the best, and definitely the longest I've ever watched the Aurora was a night in February some years ago that I and a pard siwashed in the White Mountains.

got to -25 in town, believe it might have been a tad colder out there.


regardless, I'd have loved for the sumbitch that rated that bag to -30 F to been in one just like it right next to me. Brrrrr


love to skywatch, but as my friend ironbender related this ain't the best country for it, certainly not like layin on the hood of a car in cutoffs as in my youth in MO

I often stay up past 2am. A lot of that time is spent looking up. Love it. Especially where I live. Almost no lights on at night and usually clear skies.

Love "Star Gazing" through the single ocular lens of my now "ancient" Leupold VX3 4.5 X 14 .

Folks really get confused about optics, and low QUALITY power, versus some Chinese telescope.

So, are you officially "Loony" after the last HD Moon ?

GTC

Here's a nice site particularly for satellites. Besides predictions for your location you can find out which one you just saw.
Heavens Above
Iridium flares are fun. With the right crowd and if your timing is good you can do magic.

Here's one for aurora prediction Ovation Aurora and one for space weather generally Space Weather Now

I howl at the moon once in while. Do'es that count?

As a teen I spent a lot of time gazing with my 80x reflective telescope. I guess the neatest thing I saw was a meteor impact the moon.

I'd rather be jerkin off in a briar patch.

To each, his own.

funny,,,,,,,, I figured you was a meat gazer

I had some astronomy in college, and really enjoyed it. Afterwards, I had a flat roof on my house, and used to go out and lay flat on my back and watch.

Now I have the farm, and can sit out and watch. The whole family is into it. Satellites and meteors are fun.

If y'all want to stretch it a bit, it isn't really all that hard to see incredible things with just a good pair of binos. You have the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, and a good number of the Messier objects. You just have to know where to look, and now they have an app for your phone that shows you were it all is.

If y'all haven't tried this, it's worth it. Take your hunting binos this fall and find Orion in the sky. Find his belt and then find his sword, hanging off his belt. Examine the belt slowly, and eventually you will find a patch of green. That's the Orion Nebula.

Yes, long hours of night fishing out in a small boat with only the stars to keep company.

Celestial Surveying got me interested in the night sky. I still drag my 80mm telescope out on clear winter nights.

Here's a great website to get you started:

This Week's Sky at a Glance

ain't no nite in these parts....now come January I toss a old sleeping bag down> Then a bean bag ,then me & wife... then another sleeping bag...LET THE SHOW BEGIN!

Binoculars and a lawn chair make the best warp drive yet devised.
Navigation helps, the number of things worth seeing that lie just a hair beyond the range of the naked eyeball will astound you. Get this and don't try to gobble it all at one sitting. Night by night. http://carolrpt.com/astroguidev9complete.pdf

I enjoy it. Hauling the heavy mount out isn't fun anymore though at my age so often I revert to a good set of binos