Your most expensive mistake in astronomy

[Les Ewan]

My mistake was in 1999 when I spent hundreds of pounds on a Meade ETX 90. The hand controller never worked properly and when I did find a target through the totally inadequate finder the drive was noisy and the telescope would suddenly slew off for no reason.To cap it all the axis clamp snapped off when tightening it to take a camera as it was made of plastic.I phoned the dealer and he said the scope was not guaranteed for over tightening though the unit was supposed to be designed to take cameras. I put it on a eq mount for a while until the main mirror finally got attacked by mould.Not one of my better buys.

Les.

[DaveS]

Probably my most expensive mistake was pointing my Canon 5D at the night sky and taking a single 30 sec exposure. Oh dear, that was enough to rekindle the passion and led to the slippery slope that ended with the kit in my sig. I could buy a small car for the same amount.

[paulastro]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

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

 

  Mike, you do realise that now you've really thrown a challenge out at me!  Fancy saying, and I quote from the above:

' 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. '

I'll wait my moment, by which time you will have long forgotten all about what you said in this thread, and out of the darkness I'll catch you unaware yet again and you'll find yourself flogging everything and buying yet another scope!!!!!!!!!!

Your buddy, Ratty         

[westmarch]

2 hours ago, brantuk said:

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!

I guess that depends on which one of you got to spend the savings! 

John

[westmarch]

1 hour ago, bejay1957 said:

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.

Look on the bright side! Surely there is still time to sell up and go for your dream setup?  

[recceranger]

Building this for the local community only to then have to move on to pastures new while the obs fell into disrepair due to lack of use and interest.  All because the new guys had complete lack of vision!

We try to inspire but sometimes we just fly much to close to the sun! What!

 

[goodricke1]

I should have spent more instead of wasting it on car, house, food...

[Pluto the Snowman]

I have got an 8inch telescope and 20*60 binos. Never bought anything else apart from an extra lens for my scope. Cant say I regret any of them. I dont have the skies to invest further but I do enjoy what I got. My bugbear is not having any way to clean the primary mirror.

[ollypenrice]

Not starting earlier...

Olly

[r3i]

Probably trying to get my head around astrophotography before Making Every Photon Count had been written.

[Peter Drew]

Just leave out the "in" from the thread title. 

[Moonshane]

My most expensive mistake was not a disaster but related to my attempting to collimate a Meade 80mm triplet. Knowing a bit about newt collimation I thought I'd be fine but it turned into a nightmare with me chipping a couple of place on one of the elements. As a result, a scope that cost me (actually cheaply) £200, I sold for £100 so not the end of the world but that's my worst mistake I think. On the face of it I have got away lightly!

[Radec]

Oh dear!

I commented hastily early on in this thread.

Now I've read lots of other's admissions, I realise I've made loads more mistakes than I thought!

In fact, probably nearly all of them ?

To those who think they really haven't made any.........errr,

Well, probably best left unsaid??

[Astroscot2]

Buying my first serious telescope from a UK company that made Schmidt Newtonians back In the day, saved for a year with my first job pay, not easy when all your mates are out every weekend ;-) anyway when it finally arrived it was a poor excuse for a telescope, Thumb prints all over the optics, the optical window  had chips out of it and the mount was useless,  my grand plans for fast deep sky imaging were shot down in flames and I took up climbing instead.   Not sure why but I bought another scope from same company a short time ago, scope needed a bit of work but Ok now, think ive learned my lesson.

[Paul73]

Being too tight to spend to get what I need. ie. Money saving DIY that doesn't save any money.

Bought an SW AZ3 mount and tripod for my ED80 - worse than useless. I decided to modify it rather than moving it on to someone with a lighter scope. £75 later I had a mount that worked OK. Should have bought an AZ4 straight off.

Bought a Sky Tee II without a counterweight bar. "How Much? I'm NOT PAYING that!! I'll just get a length of threaded rod!!!" Got the measurements wrong twice ??. Should have just bought the right gear.

And the list goes on......

I am just about to build a gourmet finder scope though. How hard can it be?

Paul

[simmo39]

My mistake was getting hooked on this stupid cloud watching game!

[Paul73]

Whilst we are on the subject. 

From my bank manager's PoV, Opening emails from Stu or DRT are definitaly expensive.

Going to SGL Star Parties is a definite hazard:

- "Hay Paul. Have you seen the sun in Ha before?"

- "Give this Ethos a go in your scope."

- "Berlebach you say? It does look good...."

- "Have you ever looked through a proper Dob (snigger snigger snigger)"

You know who you are..... and thank you. What does the Bank manager know anyway (he/she is probably a computer now so I shouldn't wory).

Paul

[estwing]

2 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Whilst we are on the subject. 

From my bank manager's PoV, Opening emails from Stu or DRT are definitaly expensive.

Going to SGL Star Parties is a definite hazard:

- "Hay Paul. Have you seen the sun in Ha before?"

- "Give this Ethos a go in your scope."

- "Berlebach you say? It does look good...."

- "Have you ever looked through a proper Dob (snigger snigger snigger)"

You know who you are..... and thank you. What does the Bank manager know anyway (he/she is probably a computer now so I shouldn't wory).

Paul

Not guilty.....

[kev]

Seling my 14" newt

[Paul73]

1 hour ago, estwing said:

Not guilty.....

But you know the man who is.

Think rollups and vodka.....

[Paul73]

1 hour ago, estwing said:

Not guilty.....

But you know the man who is.

Think rollups and vodka.....

[mert]

Dropping a 30mm eyepiece from a ladder onto concrete.

[Thalestris24]

Trying to do astrophotography from my flat in Glasgow plus deluding myself that the weather will one day get better. I never learn.

Louise

[Alien 13]

The other mistake I made was not buying premium components in the first place, I wasted a lot of money going in small steps.

Alan

[cloudsweeper]

Buying two items I just couldn't "take to" - a Newt on an EQ; a WiFi Module for my GoTo.

Luckily, both sold for different  kit.

Doug.