--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
The gravel pit really is a nice place to set up, with the bucolic countryside and a fine unobstructed
expanse of the heavens. We heard deer whistle and horses whiney. . . . .
Last December, a friend and I set up on the roadside of Peoa highway a bit west of gravel pit for some lunar viewing. At that time of the year, the Moon is at about 60° altitude and the still, clear, 25°F winter air allows especially crisp images. We wrapped the eyepiece in a dew heater and ourselves in wool blanklets. About an hour in, a horse that had escaped from a nearby field comes running up, no doubt curious about what the two-legged beasts were up to. I'm just shy of 6' and the horse and I were about eyeball to eyeball. Rather than spook the horse with rapid movements, my friend and I quietly sat trading some more eyepiece time. Unfortunately, this only made the horse more curious. He nuzzled his head in between us, trying to figure out why we were so intently staring at this big tube. At this point, we surrendered the scope to our roadside star party "visitor" and retreated to the car. He spent another five minutes examining the tube. My attempts to show the horse the craters Tycho and Copernicus were unsuccessful. Eventually, the horse concluded that the tube was not edible and withdrew a few meters away and started munching on a tuft of frozen grass sticking out of snowbank. There he remained a peaceful nighttime companion for the rest of the night. - Canopus56 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com