Night encounters?

Not sure exactly what forum this topic should really belongs in, and if this is the wrong one, my apologies in advance...

So… have you ever been doing a observing session, at a relatively isolated location, and “heard “ things?

I live on a fairly rural plot of wooded property, enhanced by a variety of local flora and fauna (raccoons, chipmunks, beaver, cats, squirrels, hawks…you get the drift) bordering on a small lake.

At 0200, it can be real dark and real quiet.

While gazing up, I have often been distracted by the odd “pitter-patter” of small creatures…and some that don’t sound all that small…going about their early morning prowls. At that time of morning, being alone, my admitted over-active imagination can sometimes cause me to have brief flights of imagination about what’s out there with me! Nothing has ever come of this but it can be momentarily distracting.

I was just curious if anyone ever experienced some REALLY interesting or scary event while doing some solo work?

--Ken

Many times while out star gazing early in the morning I have been visited by small animals,everything from raccoons to foxes. The worst so far was a few weeks ago when a skunk came by to pay his respects.
Anyone can get spooked while alone in the dark its just park of our nature.

Sure. One night, out on a dry lake bed, near Ludlow,Ca. as my girlfriend was using the 10" Odyssey I saw something to my right, up about 12 feet...real close ...but absolutely no sound, then it was gone. Had I actually seen something or not? Then, less than a minute later it happened again, and this time I saw something fly by. It sent shivers up my spine. I asked her if she saw or heard anything, the answer was no. I initially figured it was a large bat...but you can always hear them. The third time we both saw it as it came right at us, veered at a 45 degree angle up, made a circle, then shot off to the right. This time we could discern just the slightest bit of sound, like air through your hand if you wave it fast. I believe it was some kind of owl. Pretty neat.
In NY I've had deer snort at me at close range which is enough to give you a heart attack....especially since you eye is glued to an object in the eyepiece and your thoughts are light years away.

I was out one night, lots of small shuffling sounds with some slightly louder thumps. I kept ignoring it until suddenly there was something big right behind me! 8O I almost jumped out of my skin as a rather large cow came right up to me and then just turned around a walked away.
I laughed out loud, but I could hardly hear myself over my heartbeat! 8)

Ken Edwards said:
So… have you ever been doing a observing session, at a relatively isolated location, and “heard “ things?
--Ken

Almost every time I go out it's to a remote location and I'm usually visited by coyotes, raccoons, bats ants and worse... mosquitos.

A few years back my wife and I wanted a quick astronomy night out, someplace closer to home than my usual desert/mountain locations. So, we did something I hardly ever do -- we went to a campground. We back up to the Cleveland National Forest and on top of our little Saddleback Mountain is BlueJay campground. BlueJay straddles the border of Orange County and Riverside County here in Southern California.

The campground was less than 1/4 full so we thought it wouldn't be so bad but sometime after 10pm some idiots thought it would be fun to drive at high speeds around the windy campground roads and throw beer bottles and shout obscenities out their window. Of course they eventually spun out one too many times and slammed their rear end into some rocks on the curve next to us. Angry at everyone in the campsite for their error they jumped out yelling into the dark that we should all shut up or they were going to "F-ing Kill Us". I looked at my wife then got up to load a .22 auto trail gun we keep for camping emergencies. Loaded weapons, even such little things, were not permitted in this campground. We sat in the dark for two hours listening to them banging on their car and cussing until finally they put it back into driving condition and limped away on a wobbly rim. It was impossible not to laugh.

20 minutes later the police arrived. They saw us in the dark and pulled over to chat with us. As soon as they drove up I went to put the gun away but they called out that they wanted to talk so I turned around to meet them. There I stood in the middle of a clearing on a hot summer night with no place to hide the little plinker. The best I could do was to hold it in the same hand as my six cell MagLite. After a pleasant 10 minute chat they drove away to look for the idiots in the car. I'm sure that even in the dark they saw what I was holding and I know I was lucky that I did not get arrested.

Needless to say, we're back to the wilderness. I much prefer the company of coyotes and mountain lions. And if I ever go back to campground camping I'm bringing the .45.

J.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

Well, something like that, about 20 feet from the observatory one night. We have the black bears roaming around all the time, just not this close.

Other guy got in his car for protection, I had about 250 watts of driving lights, so thought I would see what was there.

Slight embarrassment, it was SO quiet that evening, the poor young opossom walking through the dry leaves sounded like a much bigger animal.

Good laugh, after shutting off the lights and readjusting to the dark we got several hours of clear skies and great viewing.

I was at my clubs dark sky site alone one February night. It was about 1:20am and I planned to stay until 2am (because the temp was supposed to get really cold.) In this area of Ohio, Coyotes are heard on a regular basis. I heard some in the distance earlier that night, but for the last hour or so I didn't hear much of anything besides the quiet hiss of my AM radio.

Anyway, I was at the eyepiece, about 10 yards from the woods, when I heard what sounded like a scream from the edge of the woods. I immediately figured it was a coyote, but that didn't help my nerves. I mean I had chills going up my spine! Luckily, the scope I had that night was an 8" dob, so I was at the bottom of the drive, all packed up, and locking the site gate at 1:30!

Once I settled down, I started to think, "I didn't hear any leaves crunch, and my headlights didn't pickup any beady eyes, and that didn't sound like a coyote.." I figured that it was probably a screech owl. I wasn't too upset that an owl chased me away, since I was getting cold and was near the end of my observing session anyway.

Other than coyotes and being buzzed by low flying canadian geese I have one story that is a little different. I was observing on a beautiful clear night in a game preserve next to Lake Erie. It was a fairly dark night and over the lake to the south I noticed a black cloud on the horizon that was moving towards me and getting bigger. There was barely any breeze but it was coming right at me and I could hear a faint sound or buzzing getting louder. When I realised what they were I quickly tore down my old LX200 setup and threw it in the back of my Jeep as the cloud of Mayflies that had recently hatched decended on me. Insects just creep me out, but this was right out of a scary B movie. 8O

Not astronomy related, but driving home from work Saturday night this HUGE black thing crossed the road in front of me.

Hit the high beams and the LARGEST, nearly all black, skunk I have ever seen ran into the bushes! ONE SMALL white spot on the tip of its tail!

I go to Willow Slough Wildlife area in Indiana, where indeed lots of wildlife is present.
Last time I have been there, for the first time I heard a rabbit being killed by some predators - it sounded like a screaming woman, being slaughtered by a clumsy cutler. This stressful event was followed by sober howling of coyotes nearby, so I started thinking about packing the scope and going home.
The crispy night sky was too good to give up, so I finally decided to sit on a chair and relax for a while and eat a sandwich. After maybe ten minutes, I noticed that just few feet away a fox sat and looked at my sandwich curiously. I was afraid that the guy was rabid, cause he seemed totally relaxed - yawning, licking his snout, like a dog waiting for a treat. I decided to run to my car, but once I stood up, the fox ran away like crazy.
I decided to chase him for fun and unintentionally scared deer heard, which jumped across the road. Once they were in bushes, the bull started snorting, grunting, and hitting his hooves against the ground, so within seconds I was in my car, heavy breathing and honking. 8)
That night was beautiful, but it was just a little bit too much nature for me