Brain upgrade needed

[PhilM]

Another confessional:

Have been mainly focusing on visual with the new Apo for the year so far (new scope new observing projects and all that) so haven't had the big fella on the imaging setup for some time. That's the excuse made before I start.

Rough alignment with a compass. Centre on Denebola to begin drift alignment with WCS. Pop in webcam - where's the star gone :shock: . Finally find it pretty much racing westwards off the screen. Damn, that rough alignment is so far out it's a race to keep the star on screen. Have a tweak, still flying away no matter what I do. Against all my usual principles I actually look through the polar scope - yep, there's Polaris. Annoyance, frustration, head scratching.

30 minutes later I remember I haven't turned the tracking on. Switch on. Star stops moving. Drift alignment commences...

Anyone who wants to share a dunce's cap please fess up with your misdoings...

Phil.

[Vega]

At least it wasn't set on Southern hemisphere, making it twice as worse as I once did with the EQ3-2

[Talitha]

Been there done that.

I used to have a Celestron Ultima 2000, and swung the OTA over to the wrong side of the base before initiating the 2 star alignment procedure. Once was bad enough, but I did it three times in a row that night before realizing it was user error.

My LX-10 is a lot simpler (no computer), but I had a terrible problem with drift one night. I'd run the wires for the power earlier in the evening while setting up, but never plugged the tracking wire into the base.

You think I'd have missed the sound of the motor, but it was the first night I was using the MP3 player (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ).

Oh, and there was the time I forgot to load film into the camera prior to my first solar shoot... the list goes on and on..

[thing]

Putting the date into my handset the English way instead of backwards like the Americans do it. I've done that, had the scope point at the grass, thought 'Ha it's the date', checked the date, altered it, and still entered it the wrong way...........

[Sam]

Another confessional:

Have been mainly focusing on visual with the new Apo for the year so far (new scope new observing projects and all that) so haven't had the big fella on the imaging setup for some time. That's the excuse made before I start.

Rough alignment with a compass. Centre on Denebola to begin drift alignment with WCS. Pop in webcam - where's the star gone :shock: . Finally find it pretty much racing westwards off the screen. Damn, that rough alignment is so far out it's a race to keep the star on screen. Have a tweak, still flying away no matter what I do. Against all my usual principles I actually look through the polar scope - yep, there's Polaris. Annoyance, frustration, head scratching.

30 minutes later I remember I haven't turned the tracking on. Switch on. Star stops moving. Drift alignment commences...

Anyone who wants to share a dunce's cap please fess up with your misdoings...

Phil.

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

I feel fully justified in laughing as I have done exactly the same thing!

[George]

Leaving the Hartman mask on and wondering why everything is dim and having to double imaging times

[Vega]

Trying to balance a 1000mm focal length frac with finderscope taken off and wondering why it's center of gravity is a country mile off from what it usually is :scratch:

[Talitha]

George, I did something similar.. left the Moon filter in an ep and wondered why the afocal pics were so dark.

[A McEwan]

Plugging the RA drive wire into the Dec socket can make things pretty frustrating....

[A McEwan]

...as can plugging a 6V control box into a 12V power supply unit. See the sparks. Smell the smoke. Hear the strange whining noise. Who says astronomy isn't exciting...

[Talitha]

"Smell the smoke"

Reminds me of the time the skyward cap of my finder scope fell off prior to a solar observing session. The Sun melted a hole in the eyepiece cap and it took a second before I figured out what that odd 'burning plastic' smell was.

[PhilM]

Plugging the RA drive wire into the Dec socket can make things pretty frustrating....

That's another I have the t-shirt for. Only the design of the EQ6 has stopped me doing this recently. I'd call it idiot proof if I hadn't already proved otherwise...

This thread has given me a good chuckle, glad I'm not only the one

[Ajohn]

Set up my 1st go to and dialed in m31. Up it came bang on centre wow I thought. Then realised it wasn't m31.

Moral when doing the star alignment with a dark sky and a good refractor all stars look bright and the view can be a bit restricted. Use the finder for alignment.

Still not sure which galaxy it was.

John