Flintstone Stargazing

I have only been able to get out the scope a couple times in the past week or two and then just for visual observation. Last night, the skies were very clear and was awash in stars so I set up the scope and hooked up the camera. Over the past year, as I’ve been out in my driveway stargazing, I’ve seen a lot of people go by. I’ve also seen more than a few dogs. In particular, there is a certain dog that goes out carousing about 2 hours after sunset essentially every night. He looks like he’s part German shepherd and just trots down the middle of the street and then comes back an hour or two later. It’s a bit strange, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Last night was different. I was already a little on edge because a bear had been spotted in our neighborhood the other night. I tried to kind of keep a lookout, but figured a bear probably wouldn’t be bothering me in my driveway so I wasn’t too worried. Then, about 11, while I was imaging M104, I heard a mad scramble coming up the road. It was 2 very large dogs. They were growling and sort of having a running fight. Then one of them saw me and started toward me. I had my flashlight and shone it on the dog while I jumped up and grabbed my chair. I’m sure I looked ridiculous – sort of like a lion tamer, chair in hand, except instead of a whip, I had a flashlight. The dog probably weighed about 80 pounds, so was a bit intimidating. It actually got a little tangled in my mess of wires and cables attached to the scope and messed up the imaging (thus no picture). The dog then ran into my garage while I yelled at it and finally chased it out. It then sort of sulked around me as I put stuff away, chair at the ready. It’s actually pretty hard to put away all my stuff with just one hand, keeping an eye on the dog and holding a plastic chair in the other hand.

I actually like dogs, but big, dark, unfamiliar, angry, fighting dogs that come visit me at night when it’s very dark make me a bit uncomfortable. While sometimes on online astronomy forums they talk about security while observing at remote sites, I’ve never really thought about that for myself. I observe in my own driveway so I’m not really worried about people robbing me in a remote location. I had never really thought about security from animals. I’m not sure what I’ll do in the future – maybe have some sort of stick while observing so I can push dogs away. Anybody have any ideas?