Welcome to the official I am an Idiot thread

[Pitbull]

Yes folks, I was thinking ahead today, set up the mount this afternoon, got everything ready to polar align tonight when it gets dark. OTA ready to go on, rings and dovetail mounted, checked the polar scope is good.

Get out there tonight and what happens? you guessed it, the power tank is empty!!! Doh! all that prep let down by one little oversight! The irony is I am building a powertank using a 75 Ah Leisure Battery, all done today except the cabling!

Oh well Bino's and camera tonight now. Laters all

[Schorhr]

Aw. I hope you will have some great views with your binoculars though. Open clusters and the milky way can be fun, too, if the conditions are right.

[carastro]

Do you not have an option to also run off the mains (assuming you are at home). All you need is a mains to 12V adapter of some sort. At least then you have some back up if the power tank fails.

Carole

[JG777]

Doesn't make you an idiot. I would think most of us here have made mistakes similar to this I know I have . One of my colleagues at work suggested creating a checklist as he lives his entire life by them, but then he would as he is a 747 pilot even so it was a good idea ( just for observing ) now I just have to remember where I put that list

[Pitbull]

Do you not have an option to also run off the mains (assuming you are at home). All you need is a mains to 12V adapter of some sort. At least then you have some back up if the power tank fails.

Carole

Not yet Carole although I may look into it. I was hoping to start an Obsy build this year and that will include mains power. Until then my power tank build will have to do. My current power tank is a small car starter unit, I just neglected to charge it after the last session.

[Dunkster]

How about disengaging the clutches and using the setting circles?

[Cartman]

Last sunday night. Perfect skies here in this part of Belgium. I drove 60kms (took 50 mins) to a dark area. Setting up the tripod, all nice and balanced. Setting the scope and tracking motors, looking up again to be amazed by the clear and dark skies. I even had a wishlist for the night, with some Messiers that I wanted to tick for the first time.

Ready to start, just needed to attach the counterweights.

Those counterweights that were still in the garage at home... :-(

Allmoast three hours of my life (and 10€ worth of gas) I'm never seeing back.

[alan potts]

I don't think it is a daft as using a 13mm Ethos for the first time, being less than happy with the view and then find out you haven't removed the end cap.

Alan.

[Pitbull]

thanks guys, the last 2 did bring a smile to my face I must admit.

[Flash2Bang]

Your a genius! Plugging mine in now to get a full charge! Thanks for the reminder!

Andy

[bingevader]

I was hoping we'd get to sign up to be an official idiot, how disappointing.

How about disengaging the clutches and using the setting circles?

Hmmm, he seems to have overlooked this possibility!

Used to do it quite often with the etx90 as the cheapo batteries never seemed to last.

I think my batteries must be running down now too though, because I seem to be having the same problem with the dob.

No matter how hard I try, Saturn just won't stay in the field of view!

Cheers

[m.tweedy]

I don't think it is a daft as using a 13mm Ethos for the first time, being less than happy with the view and then find out you haven't removed the end cap.

Alan.

Ah I am not alone then. Thought it was just me that had done that.

[harpic]

Set up early last night, at 11.30 looked at Saturn, I'd never seen it so wobbly, then I realized the STILL HOT BBQ was directly beneath the line of sight!

[pbyrne]

I once melted the cover off my diagonal when I removed the solar filter from my scope and went into the house. I'm officially a member of the idiot club.

[Demonperformer]

Done lots of 'silly' things, but I guess the one that best qualifies me as a total idiot, was one morning when I was imaging Mars. I was running my mount and laptop on a mains cable through a plug-in extension lead. When it started to rain (the bit of sky with Mars in it was still clear) I decided to wait until the imaging time had finished before packing up. Fortunately nothing too terrible happened, and I did at least have the sense to switch the extension lead off at the mains before I started pulling out plugs. But really ... just forgetting to charge the powertank? It's not even in the same ballpark!

[tonylumley]

so spending an age setting up and locating what I thought was mars, (right place in sky as per app on new phone) finally managed to get the focus right and find that Mars had morphed into a red glowing light atop a very high tower in the distance, better known to advise low flying aircraft. does this count???? please. I hasten to add I am red/green colour blind too

[helicalwave]

Here's one.

How about setting up in a London park behind my house, with there being a strong possibility of clouds? Except those clouds rolled over from the west in a matter of minutes, 2 hours earlier than forecast, then turned out to be storm clouds, bringing heavy rain and thunder and lightning bolts at Eurostar speed?

It's amazing what a 45-year-old man in cancer recovery with a 1-year-old carbon fiber hip can do with a 25kg SW 200p Newtonian/EQ5 mount and 10kg of assorted accessories, when he realises that his viewing location is the tallest point in the park and the EQ5 -- on its three tripod legs -- is one large solid-steel lightning rod, raised up to a height even higher. Seeing a wall of darkness and light approaching, I abandoned my chair (also metal), hoisted the scope and everything else onto my shoulders and Bolted across the park under a canopy of charged electricity, at the same time setting a personal, world and Olympic record.

The crowning stupidity was running up the flight of wrought-iron stairs that lead to my back door, with the EQ5 lightning rod pressed against my right ear and the counter weight in one hand and the shaft in the other. Then, trying to get through the door at speed, with the metre-long scope still attached to the mount and the mount still attached to the tripod legs, which were still locked in place and still partially extended.

Somehow I remained dry, and my kit and hip remained entirely undamaged. Only my pride saw any injury. I was not inside the house five seconds before the rain came down in bullets and an angry lightning bolt exploded brighter than New Year's Eve fireworks somewhere above the Houses of Parliament. (Parliament was not in session.)

That's not just comically idiotic but morbidly dangerous. Or, as I have called it since: Jackasstronomy.

[Astro Imp]

^^^^

Pleased you stayed in one piece without getting a serious scorching.