What is the astronomical event, which touched you the most?

[messier 111]

as i can see here, several are talking about the solar eclipse of 2117.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen this phenomenon, but I put the 2024 eclipse on my agenda.
I am thinking of going to Mazatlán Mexico.

[messier 111]

another memory comes to my mind, many here have talked about it. the aurora borealis.
I remember 1989 in March in the middle of the month.

a magnetic storm hits Quebec in its entirety, its happening overnight so no one knows yet. in the morning no one has electricity.

electricity comes back little by little in the evening.
suddenly I look at the sky and the show begins, shapes of all colors appear, green, blue, mauve, red.

it was by far the most beautiful spectacle of the northern lights that I have seen for life.
I remembered this while re-reading passages from this thread.

[helicon]

Seeing the Double Cluster through a neighbor's 10" Cave reflector, also Jupiter and the Orion Nebula through the same scope.

Second would be seeing Hale-Bopp as a brilliant naked eye object in the 90's.

[Shabadoo]

I remember seeing Mercury, naked eye, in the spring at dawn not long ago in the S.E. It was with Jupiter or Venus. Only time I ever saw it.

[Greenman]

For me the one that started my fascination with space as a 14 year old - that old moon landing in 1969.

The second early 1970, my dad managed to find Saturn with our newly purchased Prinz refractor (Xmas present for me)

Much more recently, my next second light of Saturn this time I was older than my Dad was at the first viewing. Dad passed in 1991, and for some odd reason Saturn became blurry for a while.

Nostalgia can hit you between the eyes sometimes.

[SkyHiker]

The landing on the Moon.
The splashdown of Apollo 13.
Seeing the Milky Way at the Humphreys basin (It cast a shadow!).
The 2017 solar eclipse (Mostly the event of getting there, otherwise, meh).
Every stargazing/astrophotography/hiking/camping trip to the Sierras.

[KathyNS]

It's hard to narrow it down to one event.

First view of Saturn through my Tasco at age 12.
The total solar eclipse of 1972 (Tuktoyaktuk) that my parents wouldn't let me go to.
The total solar eclipse of 1979 (Moose Jaw) that was right in my back yard, except that the air force sent me on a course, so I missed it.
A random backpacking trip in the Rocky Mountains: getting up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature and seeing a Bortle 0 sky for the first time ever. :eek:
Comet Hyakutake in 1996. Wow, that thing was BIG!!!
Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. My first astrophotography.

If I had to narrow it down, it would be Hale-Bopp.

[Voyageur]

Nice thread. I’m enjoying reading everyone’s memories. Many of your favorites are on my list.

A few odds and ends I remember with pleasure: the first time I saw a lunar eclipse as a kid, using my Dad’s old 7 x 35 binoculars. Comet Hale-Bopp. The partial solar eclipse in 1996, when I discovered that the gaps in the leaves of a tree acted as lenses to create hundreds of little eclipse images on the ground. The transit of Mercury last year (2019). The one time a few years ago here on my patio in Mexico that I saw color in M42. Subtle pink, maroon, and teal green. I spent a couple hours that night with different eyepieces observing the nebula, making the most of something I knew I would probably never see again.

The Northern lights on a late summer evening in 2016. I had a pact with my sister that we would call one another if we saw the aurora. I was out with my telescope that night, and called her, and she came down. She died the following summer; I’m glad we got to watch the lights in the sky together that night.

Finally, showing my Mom Saturn through my 8” Meade SCT when she visited me in PA from Michigan. It was a night of very good seeing. My Mom was entranced. Years later, she would say how she could not get over looking into my scope and there was Saturn, just hanging there in the sky.

[kt4hx]

For me, like most, I cannot limit it to simply one event. Each was different and triggered differing reactions. Ultimately all of them elicit strong emotional memories for me that make me who I am as an observer.

1) Stepping out of my back door in March 1976 and seeing Comet West in the pre-dawn sky. No need for optical aid, as it was extremely large and bright, with a huge fanned tail arcing upward from just above the horizon. That was truly an emotional moment for me.

2) The first time I ever saw Messier 51 through my new Coulter Odyssey II 17.5 inch dob in the spring of 1980. I had observed it in much smaller apertures until that point, and we lived in the country in southern Indiana, so LP was not significant. I would guess conditions were likely Bortle 2 based on my recollection. It was photographic in appearance, with brightly sweeping spiral arms and mottled structure. It was so stunningly beautiful that in that emotional moment, I became a dedicated galaxy hunter for the rest of my life.

3) Like several others, the 2017 total solar eclipse. It was our first total and we drove to Kentucky from Virginia to witness it. I set up my AR127 and ED80 on the Twilight-II mount in a Walmart packing lot in Russellville, Ky and we shared the experience with about eight other folks who had collected around us. There were several such clusters of folks strewn around. I finally understood those that say "go total or go home." The visual treat of the solar eclipse was a truly visceral experience for us. From the anticipation and lead up, to the point where I could pull the filters off the refractors to view the totality, witnessing Bailey's Beads, the corona, Helmet Streamers and a fine prominence. Another aspect was the eerie light around us during totality - unlike anything we'd experienced before. We are looking forward to 2024, though April can be problematic due to spring weather. The path of totality goes through our home county in southern Indiana and we plan to be there.

4) The memories of the summer Milky Way when we lived in the countryside of southern Indiana in the late 70s and early 80s. Fortunately we can relive this feeling at our second house in the mountains of western Virginia at an elevation of nearly 2,800 ft ASL. It is typically a Bortle 3 and at times Bortle 2. The summer MW is stunningly bright, well structured horizon to horizon and awe inspiring. Not only that, but the winter MW is also easily discerned as a much subdued, though still easy, band of pale light wafting overhead in the cold air of winter. So we have the opportunity to enjoy that view over and over again by simply stepping out the door.

[Arctic]

Comet Hale-Bopp
2017 total solar eclipse from Wyoming
Numerous all-sky auroras
2001 Leonid Meteor Shower
Bortle 1 skies from high, remote locations

[mikemarotta]

Comet Hale-Bopp. I was working in Cleveland, Ohio. and living in Lakewood. In the evening and early night I would go out for walks and viewed it often over Lake Erie.

(That is my "event" because it was transient: it occurred and I witnessed it. Reading through the other responses, I have to add my first view of Saturn through a telescope the summer that I was nine. Others added astronautic events and under that rubric, I put my first Shuttle launch: STS-95. I was working as a clerk for NASA Exchange at KSC.)

[OzEclipse]

Like others, impossible to narrow 50+ years into one event.

1969 Man's first landing on the Moon, we were sent home from school and I watched it on TV from home that afternoon.
1974 My first solar eclipse, partial from home.
1978 First total lunar eclipse, really got committed to astronomy
1980 First light through my hand made 6" f7 reflector
1981 Working on a project on a smaller 16" telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, the late Tom Cragg, Chief Night Assistant,
gave us a walk around of the outside catwalk at the base of the dome of the 4m AAT telescope with the central Milky
Way overhead and extending to north and south horizons. These space walks are now banned due to WHS risk management.
1984 Two nights in April and May when seeing was perfect, magnification was only limited by the optics not the atmosphere.
Mars, Saturn and Jupiter at opposition.
1986 Halley's Comet
1994 First total solar eclipse from Bolivia
2001 Total eclipse in Kapini village, Zambia. 1000 villagers singing, dancing, celebrating around us.
2001 Leonid Meteor shower from western Queensland - great fireball display.
2007 Comet McNaught - the only "great" comet since the early 70's. (50 degree naked eye tail)
2011 Death of my teenage astronomy mentor, Arthur Page.
2015 Bright auroral display (Kp5) from Norway then total solar eclipse from the high Arctic (80N)
2018 Watching the Jan 31 lunar eclipse with my terminally ill friend and long-time solar eclipse observing partner - our last
eclipse together. The finality of our adventures together and the impending loss really hit me and the waterworks
started flowing while I was packing up that night.

cheers

Joe

[AbbN]

For me it was comet Hale–Bopp. We were living in an apartment then and were fortunately to live on the side to see it I bought a pair of Bushnell 10x50 binoculars.

What was significant about this is that it started me on the road to my astronomy hobby. A couple of years later we bought a house and soon after getting settled I bought my first scope. And as they say, the rest is history

Abb

[KingNothing13]

Hale-Bopp as well. By Far.

These days - anytime I see Saturn and/or Jupiter - they are still stunning no matter how many times I observe them.

Any Galaxy is up there too.

[Lowjiber]

Getting to watch Shoemaker-Levy 9 assault Jupiter (Live) is something I'll never forget.

Next, might not qualify. However, as former pilot, the greatest job of flying I've ever seen was when Neil Armstrong touched the Lunar Module down on the moon.

https://youtu.be/nOcDftgR5UQ

[messier 111]

I found another one. follow the soubresaut of Betelgeuse.
Will she transform into a supernova, several questions are raised with this episode.
it was very pleasant to see it change magnitudes and return to normal.

I remember there was an excitement in the scientific world.
many people don't want her to become a supernova, they say orion will never be the same again.
no Orion is going to be different and that's fine.