List of common mistakes???

[michaelmorris]

8) Spent 30 mins getting your eyes used to the dark, and then half-blinded yourself looking at the moon.

- Spent 30 mins getting your eyes used to the dark, and then half-blinded yourself with the fridge light when looking for something to eat

Red glasses like these are the way of avoiding this problem. http://www.seeviewo.org/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=291&zenid=a38782ec2672816d7a44a395dc2423cb

The alternative is to change the bulb in the fridge to a red bulb!

[Tim]

Actually, a pair of my shooting glasses have red lenses, I could wear them I suppose, and somewhere I have a pair of red goggles for red laser finding. Not a bad suggestion there, thanks.

Oh Talitha........you didn't mail? Seriously, dont take me seriously, life's too short, the blog's all tongue in cheek

[Stephen Green]

Set the scope up and wondering whey it wont work every thing looks connected look around again after some time found I had not pushed the plug in enough

Stephen

Eastbourne AS East Sussex

[Vega]

Trying to align with the polar finder having left the cap on at the top of the mount.

Matt

[Tiny]

Making an evening appointment you can't break and then going to it and realising that outside it's the first good night in a month for stargazing and, as it turns out the last good night that month and you can't use it.

[Greg]

The OTA crashed onto my head bashing my glasses into the polar finder borehole

:shock:

A required garment for GEQ's

[James]

The OTA crashed onto my head bashing my glasses into the polar finder borehole

:shock:

A required garment for GEQ's

I think I better ask if Steve stocks them...

James

[Paxo]

Common mistake for me - actually believing the weather forecast ...........

[Tim]

Gee Paxo, that's a BIG mistake.

Fifteen years as a window cleaner taught me that. But I developed a reliable method of determining the weather.

Every morning, listen to Radio 1's forecast for your area. Then plan for exactly the opposite. 93.3333 recurring % accurate that way.

[roccodm]

SPENT A MISERABLE 45 MINUTES IN VERY COLD TEMPS TRYING TO GET THE SCOPE TO ALIGN AND FINALLY REALIZED MOMENTS BEFORE FREEZING TO DEATH THAT THE SCOPE KEPT POINTING TO THE GROUND BECAUSE I WAS CHOOSING CASTOR NOT YET RISEN FOR CAPPELLA. ROCCODM

[beamish]

Ooooooh that's gonna hurt !

[The Warthog]

Trying to remove a possible fleck of dust from an eyepiece by blowing on it - when it's -10 out.

Taking up astronomy as a hobby instead of knitting.

[Talitha]

Taking up astronomy as a hobby instead of knitting.

Trust me, sometimes it's easier to correct an astromistake.

[piers007]

Check this one out.

Aligned with Polaris and then trying out your RA/DEC motors and thinking the RA isn't working. Check the screws, check the cogs, yes everything looks ok, try again but still no movement.

30 mins later after much fiddling you realise that the RA wont move anything if your looking at Polaris!

Doh!

[BG]

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[BG]

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[russ]

Going miles to a dark site for a big imaging session. Planned it for ages and got myself really built up for it. We get to site, find the skies are perfect, everything ready to go.......except i left the camera battery in the charger at home

Russ

[dave1978]

Tighten the dovetail clamp indoors, all good. After a few hours outside in the cold thermal contraction must have occured and when picking up tripod to move back indoors the telescope slips out! followed by a nasty landing on hard ground! luckily the focuser was fully out so acted as a kind of shock absorber. Minimal damage luckily only a few teeth sheered off the R/P focuser. Still a little tight but some trial and error with the adjusters will fix that.

[The Warthog]

Going miles to a dark site for a big imaging session. Planned it for ages and got myself really built up for it. We get to site, find the skies are perfect, everything ready to go.......except i left the camera battery in the charger at home

Russ

Similarly, I once drove 500km and a ferry ride to a gorgeous dark site, and forgot to bring any star charts. Bummer!

[Sam]

From last night:

I was in somewhat of a rush last night as there was a brief break in the clouds. The problem was I couldn't seem to get anything through the DLSR viewfinder - until I removed the lid for the tube - stupid!

[MartinB]

Not mine but the best one I heard from MickG a one time member of this forum. Half way through an evenings observing there was a powercut, widespread. Mick suddenly found himself he was at a dark sky site. He took a few steps away from the scope to look at the glorious starry vista and fell straight into his rose bed sustaning a black ey and multiple lacerations.

[russ]

Not mine but the best one I heard from MickG a one time member of this forum. Half way through an evenings observing there was a powercut, widespread. Mick suddenly found himself he was at a dark sky site. He took a few steps away from the scope to look at the glorious starry vista and fell straight into his rose bed sustaning a black ey and multiple lacerations.

shouldn't laugh really. I've done similiar things though. Tripped on the tripod leg and ended up in the flower bed. Also fallen asleep on the lawn while waiting for the camera to finish.

Russ

[coatesg]

I almost missed photographing the 1999 eclipse from Munich by forgetting to take off the filter at 2nd contact... :shock: :shock: :shock:

Luckily, I had enough sense to look through the camera viewfinder at the eclipsed sun to check it was centered (well, actually, I wanted a first hand, close-up view of the prominences and the corona through a telescope at 900mm fl !!!) - not only did I realise I couldn't see anything (so then took the cap off before I wasted any more frames - was using Kodak Ektachrome 200 in those days!), but I subsequently got the most amazing view of the detached "anvil" prominence as well as a pink ring of fire around the eclipsed sun. Still remember that like yesterday.

Piccies weren't too shabby either 8)

[daz]

Drive all the way to Canterbury for a BAA meeting and observing session, and forget the central bolt that holds the mount to the tripod

Get up very early to go and image a conjunction and unpack the car at the location, only to find the counter-weights are safely tucked up the shed

The date is mm/dd

I am WEST of the prime meridian not EAST!!

Polar aligning the scope and somehow the redlight torch switch gets moved to white light and I shine it in my eyes, trip over the tripod and move the alignment

>sigh<

[The Warthog]

I kick my tripod fairly often. When I do, I just say, "Good thing I'm not into asstrophotography!"