End of session routines

[Moox]

Just wondering if people have a set routine when finishing a viewing session?

Apart from the obvious of making sure all kits is accounted for and packed away should be doing anything special with my equipment after the end of viewing session? Is there any set care of equipment I should be carrying out when bringing the scope and EPs back indoors after several cold hours outdoors?

Last night almost left the ipad out in the garden, luckily spotted it in time!

[leelee970]

I always check that I have BOTH lens for my glasses.

A few times I have found out (in the morning) that my glasses have one lens missing.

lucky I've found the offending item in the grass.

Lee

[Langy]

As I view just outside the back door and store everything by the stairs, I just make sure that everything looks is put inside first.

Then I lower the tripod legs and move that indoors, finally putting everything away by the stairs.

This way I've found that I can setup and pack away quite quickly, especially at the moment with the cloud cover where at times you may get an hour outside.

Just try and be organised in case you get a quick rain shower creep up on you.

[Astro Imp]

I bring my OTA inside and leave it with the mirror end raised, end cap off to dry out any dew that may have collected.

The eyepieces I leave with both caps off to get rid of the dew before packing away in their flight case.

[DannyHarvey]

An hour in doors in central heated room with all caps off.

[dick_dangerous]

It goes a little something like this:

1. Pack away all the bits 'n' pieces
2. Look for bits I've dropped in the dark
3. Swear when I drop the torch
4. Stub toe on telescope. Not good for collimation now I'm back with a Newtonian reflector...
5. Start heading back to basecamp
6. Realise I've left something on the bench; e.g. eyepiece, lens cap, wife etc, and go back for it
7. Text wife to put the kettle on because I'm freezing off various of my extremities
8. Trudge home (Bit of a walk or, now, push - I have the added joy of trying to get a dobsonian on a fishing trolley across a couple of busy roads!)
9. Get home and lug the equipment upstairs
10. My lovely wife, if not actually with me, then greets me with her traditional welcome, "Ooo! You're back! You should have texted, I'd have put the kettle on. Lapsang Souchang please!"

Such is the life of the urban astronomer...

DD

[Beulah]

Little stuff first, such as star maps, eyepieces and small step ladder. I don't fuss with much stuff, just map, red light torch, a couple of eyepieces and the scope.

Scope gets packed away last.

I'm trying to get the packing up routine done as quietly as possible without waking the household with clanging and banging about...

I'm usually blearily wondering where my favourite mug is first thing in the morning....

[LouisJB]

Good question, I've wondered about this.

I do a last scan before coming in doors, I try not to leave stuff scattered around outdoors so packing up is fairly easy.

I do leave my end caps off. Last night I left them all off over-night as I was going straight to bed and figured better it all dries out properly at the slight risk of having no caps on, than I cap a wet tube.

I've been leaving my OTA approx. horizontal until I cap it - I've wondered what is best here, should it in-fact be mirror up?

[lphilpot]

Despite what some others have posted, I try to not uncover the optics after I bring it in on a cold night. With my TeleKit, it's a moot point since the cover is not 'airtight', but on my 8" and with other scopes in the past (eg., my Genesis), I lewave the caps on the optics. Living in a (very) humid subtropical climate like Louisiana, even inside a heated house it's still relatively moist and uncovering cold optics is a sure way to coat them in condensation. Of course, that might be totally different in a dry environment. Then again, the optics are usually drenched anyway by the time I get through observing, so why bother?

Other post-session tasks? I do an 'idiot check' of my site to make sure I've not lost anything, usually including a full sweep with the car headlights if I have room. I'm probably just A-R, but I also rack the focuser all the way in, stow all accessories in their places, etc.

[DRT]

I'm fairly new to this but have established one end of session routine and one start of session routine:

End of session: forget to turn off the Telrad.

Start of session: put new batteries in the Telrad.

[bomberbaz]

After packing away do area sweap with power pack torch, restores your say vision instantly. Then check mobile phone hasnt fallen out of pocket, happened once and would have been lost otherwise.

next put equipment in conservatory and leave lid off eyepiece case until day after. Ever seen condensation doing this and allows temperatures to equakise quickly