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Anyone done anything this stupid?

rkc

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rkc

rkc

Posted
Posted

Took my new eq6-gt outside for the first time today to try out the polar alignment process.

Just about managed the alignment - I think - and seemed to be finding stars more or less (don't have a telescope on it yet).

Put the cap back on the top of the polar scope, then spend half an hour searching for the eyepiece cover for the polar scope.

Gave up in disgust and brought everything in.

Eventually realized where it was...

.

.

.

It had been inside the top polar cap, and was now inside the body of the mount :( Much jiggling around and poking with small fingers later, managed to get it out.

Anyway...

Does polar-alignment always require such contortionism? Can you put a diagonal on the polar scope or something? And is Polaris always so hard to spot through the polar scope? Was it just too light still? Was I too impatient giving my eyes too little time to adjust?

It all looked much easier on paper.

Richard

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JKB

JKB

Posted
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Hi

I guess it does sometimes... I have spent ages 'polar aligning' to find it impossible to find in the polar scope!

I find using a compass to ensure you are as close to North helps and then keep both eyes open as you align helps. I'm not sure about putting a diagonal in but I know a few who have put a webcam on the polar scope to aid alignment. Otherwise wet knees I guess.

Cheers

Jamie

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crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

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tonight i packed up and couldnt find one of my eyepiece caps.removed the scope from the car.removed all bags from the car.removed everything including floor mats from the car.checked the entire area round the car about 5 times.swore alot.checked back pocked and found cap.swore some more.went home

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glowjet

glowjet

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Why don`t you as I have done in the past place a padded waterproof membrane on the floor under the viewing side of the tripod/scope, it can be cut from an old padded discarded jacket, then if an EP slips out of your hands in the cold, it could safe a disaster, especially if you are set up on concrete, it is good for collecting dropped eye piece caps as well :)

John.

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nicks90

nicks90

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dont laugh..... but i use a baby changing bag as my eye piece and bits'n'pieces bag. The beauty of these they are full of little compartments and the flap folds out into a waterproof padded changing matt for the baby. This doubles up handily as a place to put your lids and eye pieces without the risk of the them falling off stuff and its totally waterproof from ground dew etc.

plus once your kit is packed back into the bag and the changing matt / flap is folded back into place - the whole bag is essentially padded against hard knocks in transit. The changing mat would also be handy for kneeling on when you are polar aligning so you dont get wet kness (not that i bother, rough magnetic north is good enough for me).

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Luke

Luke

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I set up on a patio usually and I've marked where the legs go with thick pencil lines. It's usually not too far out once I use the bubble level to level the mount. :smiley:

I never run out of stupid things I've done, especially when setting up for imaging!

A recent observing stupidity was being disappointed with the view through my new Tele View eyepiece, then after a few minutes realising I was still looking through the cheap and cheerful zoom eyepiece I use to set up alignment. :BangHead:

Luckily, the eyepiece did wow me once I looked through the right one!

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r3i

r3i

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I find threads like this most reassuring, in that it is nice to know that it's not just me who encounters these 'moments' in life :smile:

As for polar scope mods, Astronomy Shed have a video showing how to fit a webcam to the polar scope:

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nephilim

nephilim

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Oh I've done the 'leave the ep's on the tray' (luckily i'm always on grass) & i've lost count of the times iv left the dust cover on the end of the OTA & STILL always scratch my head for a couple of minutes wondering why on earth I cant see anyting. Another little gem I've managed is driving off with my planisphere on the car roof, spent 15mins trying to find it when I got home & found it 5 days later back at my parents farm next to a field (just a good job its waterproof :laugh: )

Steve

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Rockrae78

Rockrae78

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I put my latest mistake down to the fact that its been so long since I last used my scope (thanks alot clouds) that I've forgotten how to to use it...

Was looking for various clusters the other night and thought they would probably look better in my 2" eyepiece. I have a Baader Hyperion one where the bottom barrel simply unscrews that you have a 2" EP. Marvelous. Unscrewed, took out the 1.25" focusser, put the now 2" EP in, and couldn't get anywhere near to focus. Tried all sorts for about 30 mins before packing up and thinking that I'd have to try and collimate the next day.

After finally packing the last bits away, I put the EP back in my case and spotted the 2" focus adapter sat there. Can't believe I didn't remember to put this in after taking the 1.25" one out! Doh! Doh! And double doh!

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carastro

carastro

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I've spent ages doing an alignment and getting the target I want to image and then tripped over the mount power cable and disconnected it all and had to start all over again.

Forgotten to remove the Bahtinov mask before starting a run of images.

Wondered why I couldn't find a guide star and fiddled with the guide rings for ages before realising I was not in focus with the guidescope!!! And I had a member of the public looking over my shoulder while I made an ass of myself.

We've all done it!!

Carole

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Welrod50

Welrod50

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Last week I had my first session for a while (cloud, shift work etc etc) and went out intending to do a bit of astro imaging. Firstly aligned the mount nicely, OTA on, all ready to go, kicked mount. Had to do all over again.

Then ran star align sequence, lead pulled out of powertank half way through. Had to do all over again.

Then started imaging M45 and took four exposures before I realised I'd left the Bahtinov on. Eight exposures later I realised I hadn't tightened the EQ3 legs up and all the exposures were defunct.

I got there in the end, but sometimes you just have a bad night. :icon_neutral:

We live and learn ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
starman1969

starman1969

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Its not surprising that there are a lot of mishaps in this business. There are so many things that need to be done to set things up correctly whether observing, or even more if imaging. Its not possible to just grab my astrotrac and dslr & go outside to take a few quick pics. There are so many things to make sure I have before I can start to setup.

One of my worst mishaps has happened a few times. I'd have the astrotrac running then I would setup some long exposures only to find after half an hour's imaging the camera was set to 1/30 sec shutter speed instead of 30 seconds!

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