[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: (meteorobs) meteor observing experiences

Hello Dustin,
Well, this sounds familiar! I have the same experience with owls on my
observing site at the Groevenbeekse heide (a moor) near the village of
Ermelo, The Netherlands. The first time they fly over and mostly (if they
spot me)  they start to circle around me and getting lower and lower. After
a yell and some arm wavings they mostly disappear. And I have the same
feelings you discribed below :  " Then I realized that just my eyes and
> hair were showing and I probably  looked to the owl like some kind of
weird
> rabbit".

Best wishes & clear skies
Koen

> Speaking of birds and meteor watching,
> Last year during the Leonids I was out in the Columbia River Gorge.
bundled up
> in a sleeping bag watching for meteors when a black silhouette swooped in
front
> of my face.   Startled I realized it was an owl. Very silent, very eery.
Their
> special shaped feather tips make them silent as they fly.   I thought that
was
> cool until the owl made another pass.   Then I realized that just my eyes
and
> hair were showing and I probably  looked to the owl like some kind of
weird
> rabbit.   At this point I sat up and waved my arms and made some noise.
"I AM
> NOT A RABBIT!"
> It did not come close after that but I did see it's silhouette flying in
the
> distance checking other areas for a tasty rodent to catch.
>
> Dustin Brown
> Vancouver WA
>
>
>
> Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 10:09:04 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Robin Gray <sevenvalleysent@yahoo.com>
> Subject: (meteorobs) Meteor Observing Experiences
>
> Dear All,
>
> I've been reading with interest people's comments on
> their meteor observing experiences. The weather here
> in Northern Nevada has been bad pretty much the whole
> month of April and it doesn't look like it is going to
> improve before the Lyrids are gone. I'm really pretty
> dissapointed about that but obviously there's nothing
> I can do. Sooner or later the weather will clear, the
> Moon will be out of the way and I'll get the chance to
> observe some meteors again. I don't care if the shower
> is spectacular or not, I like them all. I like the
> idea of contributing to our understanding of meteors
> by recording and sending in my observations. But there
> are a lot of other things that go along with this and
> make up the whole experience. There is a special kind
> of solitude to observing meteors in the small hours of
> the morning when everyone else is sleeping. And there
> are other things out there that become part of the
> experience. Like Bob Lunsford, birds are part of that
> for me. There is one species of bird that I frequently
> hear when I am out at night. As I have never seen it I
> can't identify it but I always associated it's cry
> with meteors and deep sky observing and they all
> enhance each other. Lying on my back I've learned a
> lot about cloud behavior, something that happens to a
> much lesser extent during the daytime. And I've even
> gained insight into mosquitos - which species are
> present and something about their activity cycles
> during the night, a piece of understanding that
> probably would not have come to me except through
> observing meteors. Meteor observing, in fact all of
> observational Astronomy, is like an iceberg - it's a
> deep experience most of which is beyond the reach of
> words.
>
> Robin Gray
>
> The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
> To stop getting all email from the 'meteorobs' lists, use our Webform:
> http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html
>
> ================================================================
> Deze e-mail is door E-mail VirusScanner van Planet Internet gecontroleerd
op virussen.
> Op http://www.planetdot nl/evs staat een verwijzing naar de actuele lijst
waar op wordt gecontroleerd.
>


The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
To stop getting all email from the 'meteorobs' lists, use our Webform:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html
References: