In reply to
WhiIe was in the army a friend of mine brought into the camp a former Soviet military telescope he won at some random auction in Russia. Between the stand and the telescope was a battery powered motor which alligned and tracked planets according to the Earth's rotation, going by settings he punched into this little control panel. It was a clear night as the forecast predicted and we were on a guard tower on the Green Line high in the mountains. He told me he was going to setup something for me to see first and after about 20 seconds he told me to look. I looked through the lens and I was looking at a black and white image of Saturn, rings and all
After looking at it for 10 minutes he said he was going to turn to motor off to see how fast the objects travel. The he turned off the motor and Saturn was out of sight in about 8-10 seconds. I dont know if it's exciting for other people but it's an image I'll never forget,
Never had a blanket of stars above my head, though on a flight back from the US, I had a window seat and directly beside me for at least 5 hours of the flight was the largest and birghtest full-moon I had ever seen. Was listening to Massive Attack and felt like I was in space.