Your most expensive mistake in astronomy

[westmarch]

I was reading this account of the Hubble space telescope and the inquiry into why NASA put a flawed mirror into orbit that only produced blurred images.  The COSTAR module that eventually corrected the flaw cost in excess of half a billion dollars.

http://people.tamu.edu/~v-buenger/658/Hubble.pdf

I wonder what has been your most expensive astronomy mistake?

John

[Ben the Ignorant]

Not moving to Arizona.

[furrysocks2]

Building, rather than buying.

[reddoss]

Seeing Saturn through a 15 inch Newt when I was 11 years old, it's been spend...spend...spend ever since.

[JimT]

Listening to my sister on the phone telling me she could see stars forming through her 3" telescope, silly me was looking for a hobby  

Jim

[xtreemchaos]

I don't worry about the money when its a lifelong labour of love, its like my kids, I don't count what ive given them over the years, and mistakes are there to teach us, there priceless. hope you all have clear skys.  charl.

[Alien 13]

Buying some kit without first joining SGL.

Alan

[Daniel-K]

looking through simos 22"

[Roy Challen]

I wouldn't say I've made mistakes as such, but there are quite a few items I have sold which I wish I hadn't.

[iPeace]

Starting.

[brantuk]

A few years back my missus pointed out that with the money I spent on fags I could buy a used Ethos eyepiece every month or a new one every two months. So I gave up smoking two years ago. I guess that can be regarded as a big booboo!

[Radec]

Successfully taking an image of the moon with a 35mm camera a few days before seeing Redshift 3 on offer in PC World.

[estwing]

Not made one....

[Owmuchonomy]

A bit like Alan above really; constantly consulting this forum and buying good used gear when I can means if I ever do make a mistake I can move it on to someone who really wants it.  

[John]

Buying lower cost alternatives only to then sell them at a loss to buy what I should have bought 1st time around

I mostly buy used so the losses ar emostly small but culmulatively they probably add up to a fair chunk of cash.

[abhoriel]

Buying a barn door mount rather than going straight for a proper equatorial mount. The barn door was cheap, but it really wasn't a substitute for a proper mount and the money should have just gone towards getting one earlier!

It was good for learning basic imaging principles like polar alignment , taking darks/flats/bias, basic processing, etc though

[mikeDnight]

I'm not sure I've made many real mistakes but  just one wrong move after another. I've wasted a lot of time following wrong advice and empty promises. Time is valuable and talk is cheap!

Another expensive move I made was in befriending paulastro. Paul is my number one observing buddy, and is probably more responsible for liberating me from my cash than I am. The trouble is that his advice and interventions have almost always been beneficial, so I'm not complaining. 

The biggest wrong move I ever made was in selling my FS152 on a G11 mount, and replacing it with a £3,100.00 TVNP101 and around £1,400.00 of TV eyepieces. It wasn't the drop in aperture that troubled me, it was just the 101 lacked planetary punch! After the TVNP101 was thrashed by a Vixen 102mm F6.5 ED while looking at Saturn, and again by a SW ED while looking at the Moon, the 101 was given the push after only one year. So, the NP101 was probably my biggest single and most expensive mistake.

I've owned many great scopes over the years but my heart has always had a special attachment to fluorite. When my "friend" paulastro informed me that Takahashi had started producing a new line of fluorite doublet apo's I was intrigued. For about three months I window shopped the new Tak scope and discussed my feelings with Paul. One day Paul phoned me to say he'd ordered himself one of the new FC100 scopes. Not to be out done, I immediately put my gear up for sale on line to fund the new Tak. My equipment sold rapidly and within a few days I had more than enough to place the order for my new scope.

HERE'S THE HUMOROUS PART! Paul had noticed I'd had my equipment up for sale on AB&S and phoned me to ask why? When I told him "I was selling up to fund the new Tak, and that if he was having one then so was I!" He laughed and then confessed that he hadn't really ordered one, but just told me he had, to see how I'd react. "What a Rat!" Despite being a bit shocked by his confession, I couldn't help but laugh! The reality was that as soon as I knew Tak were making these new scopes, I was somehow going to end up with one. Paul knew that too. He just acted as the catalyst. "The Rat!"

My ratty friend and I often laugh about that conversation - not all of which has been detailed above - but I regret nothing! If true contentment can ever be found in a thing of aluminium and glass, then I've found it. Infact, I can't ever remember being more content with any telescope than I am right now. 

Thanks paul-ratty-astro! 

Mike

 

[Peter Drew]

Contracting "aperture fever".   

[nightfisher]

I am struggling to think of any mistakes as such, i have had a few scopes that i sold to make way for other kit but would have preferred to keep them if i had a big storage room.........despite making some comments on the forum recently that seem to have been taken in wrong context i now have a superb scope in the ED120, it would be nice to have some clear skies to use this scope but hey ho  

[bejay1957]

Sadly, buying/upgrading my scope to a 150mm refractor, should have gone for a smaller reflector or even a Mak... I should have paid far more attention to members scopes at the local society's scope nights, not just the handling while observing, but the whole outside assembly and setup - I might then have foreseen how this would aggravate my susceptible lower back!  By the time I'd got the refractor on the EQ3, added the counterweights, then groveled on the ground to set my polar alignment I was seeing stars - though not the celestial variety   As mentioned on another thread, that kit has been dismantled and lingering in the spare bedroom for the past 10 years.

[BritAngler]

1 hour ago, iPeace said:

Starting.

You took the word right out of my mouth

John

[Stu]

Most costly mistake was probably buying a Takahashi Sky 90. I thought it would be just what I was looking as a fast, widefield grab and go scope. I just didn't get on with it, and sold it for quite a loss.

On a positive Takahashi note, another expensive mistake was reading mikednight's reports with his Takahashi FC-100. That led me to an expensive purchase, but one that I've been extremely happy with and have no regrets about.

[RichLD]

17 minutes ago, BritAngler said:

You took the word right out of my mouth

John

+1 

[Alan White]

So far none; I have made learning steps, expensive learning steps, but learning ones all the same.

As has been said by the late Terry Pratchett:
'Wisdom comes from Experience 
Experience comes from lack of Wisdom'

I am still working on the experience bit in life it would appear!

[ronin]

Nothing "expensive" just a few eyepieces that turned out not really worthwhile - TMB planetary's.

Not even sure if I still have them, not seen them in years and I may have just given them away.

My scopes are on the small side so nothing costly there and I tend to look upon the strong points of a scope so use it for what it is most suited to.