Ever had an "oops" moment with astro gear?

[BeerMe]

Like a moment when you have caused damage?

When I first got my Heritage, I wasn't sure exactly where the scope should attach to the altitude bearing.  The rail covers the length of the closed part of the tube, and there's no indicators as to the best centre of gravity.  I thought it best to get it as high as possible so I set it on the part of the rail closest to the primary, so it was closer to the stars (don't laugh, please...) - the extra weight on the top wrenched the middle bolt holding the alt bearing to the base free a little!  I ended up having to put a new bolt up in to the alt part of the base and gluing it all tightly together again to make sure, with the result that I can't separate the alt part from the base any more!  Not a great issue, unless you want to take it in a suitcase I spose.  

I felt incredibly stupid afterwards tho lol.

[kilix]

I broke a leg locking nut holder on my tripod thinking "If I fasten it really tight, the tripod will be more stable". The funny part is, that it broke when I wanted to unfasten the bolt and pack the tripod after observing session, because I turned the bold the opposite direction and instead of loosening it, I fastened it even more  Well, apparently, stupidity comes in packages, never alone.

Well, I ended up tinkering with epoxy afterwards, which is good, because I learned how to repair plastic using poured epoxy resin.

[Yamez]

Only incident I've had is dropping the 25mm plossl which came wirh my scope, I dropped it on tiles and it cracked. I got it replaced from where I bought the scope.

[RayD]

Yep, broke the lens cell on my beloved ES 80.

Put the OTA on my work bench then moved a piece of studding (threaded rod) out of the way, and dropped it.  Naturally it bounced end to end several times, with the last one being smack in the middle of the lens cell, taking a big chunk out of it.  High odds against it happening, but as we know, stuff happens.

[cotterless45]

Forgot to load up the counterweights on the mount. About 10 kgs of ota swung violently downwards , caught only by quick reactions. Luckily there was no damage. Now I go through a routine to Polar Align, add weights then add the ota.

old Nick.

[John]

I had a lovely 4" ED doublet refractor fall off the mount onto the patio once. It made a horrible sound as it hit the ground

Fortunately the damage was not too bad. A new focuser and a respray of the dew shield had it sorted in a couple of weeks. I also changed the dovetail clamp on the mount !

 

 

[carastro]

 

When l had a CG5 GT mount l slewed to anew target and all the cables got mangled up in the sticking out alt / DEC housings. 

 

Carole

[Knighty2112]

One dropped WO 6mm EP (thankfully undameged apaert from a slight scuff on the end of the barrel), and one hole burnt into my coat after some careless solar observations. Other than that nothing too drastic so far. Would hate for any of my scope to be dropped and damaged though! Ouch! 

[Star101]

It was a cheap one. Bought when first starting out.

I once ....and only once, decided that there was the tiniest speck of dust in my 20mm eye piece and thought, I will dismantle, clean and put back together. I unscrewed and took out the lenses and laid them all out on a nice piece of lint free cloth. Cleaned them as good as possible and then placed them back in the unit for the next viewing session. Trust me, without having access to Intel microchip manufacture professional clean room with all the masks and white boiler suits with head gear and eye wear. I would not recommend trying to clean the elements. 

That eyepiece is my worst eyepiece now. There is more dust in that eye piece. I wish I had left well alone  Maybe that's why I went down the AP route lol.

[spaceman_spiff]

I once dropped a filter through my new star diagonal, it left a little chip in the middle of the mirror. I remember the sound more than anything else!

[wookie1965]

I collect rainwater in a big bucket for water changes in my fish tank. Se up one night put an 18mm BST down on the table were upon it rolled straight down and into the bucket of water I got it out ASAP but did not know what to do with it, I gave Alan a ring at Skies the Limit he very kindly said post it to him and he would sort it out free of charge.True to his word he did and within a week it was back with a Lenspen included.

[JOC]

22 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

and one hole burnt into my coat after some careless solar observations

My jaw dropped at this point, how on earth did you manage that?!!

[Knighty2112]

21 minutes ago, JOC said:

My jaw dropped at this point, how on earth did you manage that?!!

This will explain all!