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Ouch! Been clumsy today but got off lightly!

Stu

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Stu

Stu

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Posted

I had two instances of 'Scope down!' today unfortunately. I rather foolishly changed my Giro-WR mount for the Ercole on the Gitzo tripod which I'm sure is fine normally, but on the EQ Platform it made the whole setup unstable as I have the legs in a narrower spread than normal. I should have changed back, but was anxious not to miss any of the transit.

Initially I was running with just the Tak onboard. I popped back inside to get something and came back to find the scope on the grass, the whole lot had toppled over ?. Fortunately the grass is very soft, so there was no damage at all to the scope, just a little soil to brush off.

In order to get some stability, I added the BO triplet to the other side. All was well until it rained! I stupidly took the Tak off first in a hurry (wanting to keep it dry) and of course the whole thing toppled over the other way!

Not so lucky this time. The whole focuser came off the triplet, and it has bent the focuser shaft ?. Stupid mistakes which could have been much worse, no other damage. Lesson learnt.

I think I even have a spare stainless steel shaft which I can use to repair it so all should be well soon.

First this has happened to me, lucky I observe on grass most of the time!

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Pig

Pig

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Sorry to hear this Stu, I did a similar thing with my dual mount but fortunately I managed to stop it falling over so I only damaged my heart :happy7:

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John

John

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Sorry to hear about these upsets Stu - double ouch !

I had a similar experience with my Vixen a while back - onto the patio slabs !

They are quite tough things though so I'm sure yours can be sorted as I did with mine. Still shakes you a bit when things like that happen though :undecided:

As you say, we learn from these things ....... mostly :rolleyes2:

 

 

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mikeDnight

mikeDnight

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13 hours ago, Stu said:

I had two instances of 'Scope down!' today unfortunately. I rather foolishly changed my Giro-WR mount for the Ercole on the Gitzo tripod which I'm sure is fine normally, but on the EQ Platform it made the whole setup unstable as I have the legs in a narrower spread than normal. I should have changed back, but was anxious not to miss any of the transit.

Initially I was running with just the Tak onboard. I popped back inside to get something and came back to find the scope on the grass, the whole lot had toppled over ?. Fortunately the grass is very soft, so there was no damage at all to the scope, just a little soil to brush off.

In order to get some stability, I added the BO triplet to the other side. All was well until it rained! I stupidly took the Tak off first in a hurry (wanting to keep it dry) and of course the whole thing toppled over the other way!

Not so lucky this time. The whole focuser came off the triplet, and it has bent the focuser shaft ?. Stupid mistakes which could have been much worse, no other damage. Lesson learnt.

I think I even have a spare stainless steel shaft which I can use to repair it so all should be well soon.

First this has happened to me, lucky I observe on grass most of the time!

image.jpeg

Hi Stu. Looking at things from a cup half full perspective, you must be one of the luckiest guy's I know. I bet you couldn't put in print the words that crossed your mind or lips at the time it happened. I know I feel sick just thinking about it! ?:crybaby2:

I know its not always practical, but couldn't you find a spot in your garden where you can sink a steel pier into the ground and do away with the need for a tripod? I think every garden should have a telescope pier in it. It's cheap to do as well.  I had my latest pier constructed by a sheet metal worker and it cost me £30. Then I painted it with lead oxide before standing it in rapid setting postcrete. Then of course you can paint it any colour you like and even leave the mount permanently set up. With a canvas garden  chair cover over it, it will never get wet. Just a thought! :icon_scratch::blob7:

Mike

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iPeace

iPeace

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Please don't take my 'like' in the wrong way; thanks for sharing this. It is never apparent at the moment why such things happen but keep faith and you'll see some good come from it, I'm sure. Easy for me to say, but sincerely meant.

:happy8:

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Linda

Linda

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Ouch, you must have been shocked at first, and then quite relieved.

Is the conclusion that you should ideally use the Giro mount on a permanent pillar that can't topple over?

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iPeace

iPeace

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Linda said:

Ouch, you must have been shocked at first, and then quite relieved.

Is the conclusion that you should ideally use the Giro mount on a permanent pillar that can't topple over?

Perhaps not a permanent pillar, but this may not have happened on a more hefty tripod - which I am sure Stu has lying about somewhere...

:happy11:

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Stu

Stu

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7 minutes ago, Linda said:

Ouch, you must have been shocked at first, and then quite relieved.

Is the conclusion that you should ideally use the Giro mount on a permanent pillar that can't topple over?

Thanks Linda, yes very relived that my Tak was unscathed! I would have been mortified if that had been damaged.

The conclusion is not to use the Giro Ercole on the Gitzo tripod on the EQ Platform. Any other combination is fine, but it's a combination of the weight of the Ercole, the lightness of the Gitzo, the fact that I cannot have the tripod legs fully spread so it fits on the EQ Platform, and finally, the Ercole's arms are much longer than the Giro-WR so it carries the weight far enough out that the centre of gravity is no longer between the tripod legs.  A complicated set of circumstances that I now know not to repeat!

The Ercole on the Gitzo with legs fully spread would be fine.

The whole lot is quite stable with the Giro-WR so I will revert to using this. I was thinking that the Ercole movement would be smoother, but actually the beauty of the EQ Platform is that you don't need to move the scope very much at all, so there was no need for me to mess with it in the first place!  

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Stu

Stu

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5 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Hi Stu. Looking at things from a cup half full perspective, you must be one of the luckiest guy's I know. I bet you couldn't put in print the words that crossed your mind or lips at the time it happened. I know I feel sick just thinking about it! ?:crybaby2:

I know its not always practical, but couldn't you find a spot in your garden where you can sink a steel pier into the ground and do away with the need for a tripod? I think every garden should have a telescope pier in it. It's cheap to do as well.  I had my latest pier constructed by a sheet metal worker and it cost me £30. Then I painted it with lead oxide before standing it in rapid setting postcrete. Then of course you can paint it any colour you like and even leave the mount permanently set up. With a canvas garden  chair cover over it, it will never get wet. Just a thought! :icon_scratch::blob7:

Mike

Thanks for your concern Mike. Ultimately I would like a pier, and possibly even an observatory in the garden, but I do have perfectly stable setups available to me. The Ercole normally lives on a Meade Giant Tripod with 16" pillar extension, pretty much as stable as a pier, certainly for visual. I have the Vixen GP on an EQ6 tripod with half pillar which again is very stable. I've just been experimenting with the EQ Platform as a very quick to setup rig for solar and planetary when I can't be bothered to setup the Goto on the Vixen. I do sometimes wonder if I got carried away with adding the Goto..... Just having the dual axis drives was simpler I suppose but still needs power so not much more faff.

Anyway, I got off very lightly and have learned a big lesson so yes, my glass is definitely half full, especially as I left it out in the rain last night ;) 

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Davey-T

Davey-T

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Could have been worse Stu, pause for a chorus from Eric Idle, I started out with the 32mm TV in the LS60, took it out and butter fingers dropped it, That's OK I thought as it landed on the bark chippings, unfortunately it landed glass down and found a bit of terracotta pot that made a mark on the lens, luckily it wasn't the Lieca zoom that I had in the other hand :)

Dave

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Stu

Stu

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7 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Could have been worse Stu, pause for a chorus from Eric Idle, I started out with the 32mm TV in the LS60, took it out and butter fingers dropped it, That's OK I thought as it landed on the bark chippings, unfortunately it landed glass down and found a bit of terracotta pot that made a mark on the lens, luckily it wasn't the Lieca zoom that I had in the other hand :)

Dave

How annoying Dave! I also managed to put a scratch on one of my T2 Zeiss prisms.... Fortunately it was the one which already had a mark on the prism and the replacement I bought remains pristine! Must stop being clumsy, I'm usually really good with my kit.

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