Pedalling against the tide.

[cotterless45]

Those pilgrims who follow might think , this is a suave dude with anything within reach ! Nothing further than the actuality ! Firstly I wear oversize crocs  ( lined winter ones ! )

it's too easy to kick a kick a tripod leg . Often.

It's too easy to forget to put on the counterweights and have 11 Kgs of scope give out a grinding kiss of death. Nice fix.

It's too easy to not notice that the counterweight has slid down to the end of the bar , no movement and a terrible noise in alt ! Really special , as I'd fitted the Heq5pro belt conversion. It requires dead accurate balance . Reached for Allen Kent set and adjusted in the dark.Phew , luck.

No movement from Crayford focuser, terrible graunching noise ! dual speed.  One side moving , the other not ! Thus was last night . Too good a night to pack up. Took off the SW ( awful) focuser .

Magic, SW Meistersinger design, grub screw trying to hold onto a round spindle. Managed to rasp a flat surface and find ( !) a uniquely sized SW Allen Kent to tighten. Note , that in the cold dark ,have an open box to catch grub screws . Double note , the Allen key pinged off into the great Beyoncé of red darkness ! Got it all together , not bad , but a big grin as wonderful night followed .

Major badness, catastrophe cosmic style ,no Polaris , loosened everything . Raised , lowered and twisted. It's gone , blown up . Just about to phone LeeB to see if it was worthwhile reporting to (?) Then

looked at the front of the polar scope, blooming semi transparent cover , doh. Phew , felt the sweat dry.

Ok , there's be the other amazings, putting down the ep case and it fell over , open. Identifying the ISS and pointing it out at a star party , to see it had flashing landing lights . Managing to weld my thumb to the power pack terminals in a terminal short cut, don't think 12v is harmless.

That's my time in the confession box , come on pilgrims ! 

Claer skies , keep safe , 

Nick.

 

[Pig]

I can only think of one Colonel Blink moment recently Nick.... I managed to trap the elastic string from my jacket in the dovetail clamp and of course I didn’t realise until selecting a target .... I was on my own in the dark and was wondering what the heck was tugging at me ?

[cotterless45]

Is that what is known as a sky hook ?! 

[Pig]

I guess it could be...... at least it didn’t snap and ping me in the sweetbreads ?

[Littleguy80]

Having never used a telescope, when I got my first scope, I immediately threw away the manual. No need for that. As a result, for my first few sessions, to make the telescope go up and down, I used to crank the T-bar on the EQ mount. You know, the one where you set your latitude for polar alignment! It made it pretty hard work getting onto targets. A quick hunt through the bin for the instructions and I soon saw the error of my ways. NEVER READ THE INSTRUCTIONS   

[Pondus]

1 hour ago, cotterless45 said:

Identifying the ISS and pointing it out at a star party , to see it had flashing landing lights .

[cotterless45]

It's our family tradition to throw away instructions.

Join the club, first time I used an eq mount , never heard of meridian flip . Ending up on my back trying to reach the ep. Just couldn't figure it out ! I blame the often provided useless instructions . That's my excuse !

?

[Pig]

2 minutes ago, Pondus said:

I think I was there...

 I didn’t want to hurt Nick’s feelings and kept quiet ?

[Knighty2112]

Been pretty lucky with no major catastrophies or damage to any equipment. Probably the most embarrassing thing that happen to me was setting my coat smouldering when doing some solar astronomy with two ‘fracs at the same time on my Skytee mount. Swapping my Lunt wedge from one scope to the other, I forgot to cap the front of the scope that I was taking the Lunt wedge out of. Whilst I was focusing on the sun via the Lunt wedge in the other scope I could smell burning, only to find my coat on my left shoulder area nicely in the light beam shining out from my uncapped ‘frac! Good job it was an old coat, as now it has a nice singed area there! Ooops!  

[wookie1965]

I collect water in a big bucket for my fish tank was out one night the bucket I thought I had put it under the table keeping all my bits on books,  eyepiece case.

Took out my 18mm to put 15mm in put it down rolled off the table and I thought crash but no all I heard was plop, thinking what's happening went to edge and saw the bucket panicked put my arm straight in freezing cold water up to my shoulder. 

Got the eyepiece out luckily I phoned Alan at Sky's the limit,  he said send it to him and he cleaned it for me no charge. 

Took my scope off and weight bar swung round whacked me. 

Took ages to polar align 3 star alignment went to 5 or 6 objects went to move into position to view and kicked a tripod leg. 

Went to rotate the OTA but had not loosened the rings off enough thus when trying moved the whole scope had to go through set up all over again. 

Probably many more but I don't want everyone think I'm accident prone. 

[AdeKing]

No catastrophes here...........yet well apart from kicking the tripod after aligning.

But I do remember proudly pointing the scope at "Mars" and proudly showing and telling people about it at an outreach event.

Then about half an hour later I saw Mars again and much higher in the sky. Only then did I realise I'd in fact been showing people Mercury earlier in the evening.

Never admitted to it but continued to show people the real Mars until it set.

Embarrassing!

[iPeace]

Last night, for the first time in years (or: ever?), I went out a-gazing and left the keys inside. Fortunately, the dwelling was otherwise occupied and I was let back in. I suppose it's a sign of subsiding OCD.

Otherwise, it's all been pretty smooth...ah, there was the time I fumbled around in the dark with the power tank and turned the included radio on at maximum volume. The controls have since been fully covered by electrical tape.

[MarsG76]

Ah man... I felt you pain, especially that description of the crunching gears.... like a dentists drill....

 

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, cotterless45 said:

don't think 12v is harmless

All depends on the amount of current... but 12V can be a jolting experience.

 

[Astro Imp]

When you consider we are trying to operate delicate scientific equipment in as near darkness as we can find it's surprising we ever see anything and don't end sessions with a tangle of leads and a box full of expensive broken glass.

[johnfosteruk]

48 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Took out my 18mm to put 15mm in put it down rolled off the table and I thought crash but no all I heard was plop, thinking what's happening went to edge and saw the bucket panicked put my arm straight in freezing cold water up to my shoulder. 

Ah, what I call a wet shouty moment. I've had a few of those over the years, mainly non astro gear related thankfully!

And how about despite everything I know, everything I understand, everything that is blatantly obvious about observing sol, I once put my hand in the light path to see if the scope was lined up right before inserting the Herschel wedge, idiot. Ouch. I can tell you it doesn't take long to get hot!

[SilverAstro]

1 hour ago, wookie1965 said:

I collect water in a big bucket for my fish tank 

and saw the bucket panicked put my arm straight in freezing cold water up to my shoulder. 

I used to do that, -collect rainwater for my discus - not dropping eyepieces or dipping shoulder ! But then my 'buckets' were almost as tall as me !

One night I really really wanted some photos, but my camera tripod had lost a shim out of one of the leg clamps, no worry bind it up with sticky tape, , , I think you are all ahead of me !? , , ,

after a wee while, after some good shots, on returning to the camera after the last shot I was in the nick of time to take a dive and catch the camera 2ft off the ground as it was performing a graceful arc, phew!

England would have been proud of me. Howzat!

 

[SilverAstro]

32 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

to see if the scope was lined up right before inserting the Herschel wedge, idiot. Ouch. I can tell you it doesn't take long to get hot!

I believe you ! :-

Not astronomically idiotic, just mildly puzzled one day in the garden. I had a giant (nearly spherical ) old fashioned prob. antique? carboy for the brewing of wine, rinsed it out by the garden tap, filled it with water (do you see where I am going with this yet ? !)  and left it to soak, standing on a sheet of 3/4" ply cos the path was irregular and stoney. Puzzled all day by a slight aroma of smouldering wood, I had forgotten all about it. Next day I found a beautiful arc burned into the wood and in a couple of places right through !

 

 

[Stu]

2 hours ago, SilverAstro said:

collect rainwater for my discus

Why do you need to feed your discus rainwater?  

5 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

Identifying the ISS and pointing it out at a star party , to see it had flashing landing lights .

Been there, done that, but with a Chinese lantern. I lost all credibility with Mrs Stu having confidently pointed out ISS, then struggled to explain why it went over again, and again, and then why we could see five in the sky at once  

3 hours ago, AdeKing said:

But I do remember proudly pointing the scope at "Mars" and proudly showing and telling people about it at an outreach event.

Then about half an hour later I saw Mars again and much higher in the sky. Only then did I realise I'd in fact been showing people Mercury earlier in the evening.

Another classic, showing a few people the GRS on Jupiter, only for it to turn out to be a barge, with the real GRS appearing about half an hour later, looking much more, well, GRS like .