I'm glad I observe on grass!

[Stu]

I had a bit of a wake up call today, after using my PST mod in the garden for much of the afternoon. I had the binoviewer over at an angle so it was easier to view sitting down, and when I returned to it later this evening, my somewhat precious Mark IV binoviewer was lying on the grass by the scope.

My own fault of course, the locking screw holding the binoviewer in the PST barrel was not done up tight enough as I had been playing around with different combinations during the afternoon. The weight of it off to the side unscrewed the PST back end from the etalon enough to pivot down and dump  the binoviewer and eyepieces on the grass.

There is no apparent damage, although I think one of the Plossls hit the foot of the pillar mount; the rubber eyecup was bent right back on it. Hopefully all is well with the collimation, the eyepieces are not that important to me but the binoviewer has given me wonderful results, particularly for white light solar so I shall be very annoyed with myself if they are now out of whack.

The Tak is out in night mode to have a quick check so I can stop worrying (hopefully!)

So, don't get sloppy and careless like I did today, make sure everything is tightened up and in a safe configuration before leaving it. Then check it again!

[Alan White]

Ouch, that was unlucky, yet lucky Stu.
In this heat, I bet observing from grass will also have other benefits too.

[niallk]

I hope your no doubt very precious indeed Mark IV is ok!!!  Lovely setup you have there.

Fingers crossed for you...

[Stu]

Thanks chaps. Just had a quick try out and all seems to be well. I managed a nice split of Algieba at around x100, images merged easily so I think I got away with it! Lucky.

[Guest]

Makes me shudder to think of it Stu. Glad all seems well. 

[Paz]

That was lucky! I've had a diagonal swing down whilst I'm observing but was luckily there to grab it. I've also forgotten to tighten the screw on a 9*50 finder so after much observing when I went for the first higher altitude object guess what happened!

[Guest]

I observe on grass too Stu.......?

[knobby]

I'm dying to say something about observing on grass but fear it will be deleted ? ?

[Guest]

That’s what I was trying to do ?

[Captain Scarlet]

Glad it was just a lesson learned!

I couldn't help noticing those "iron sights" on your rings (pair of plates with holes)? I fancy those, who does them?

Cheers, Magnus

[Guest chaz2b]

My bino  viewers are precious to me, so I’ll be investing in a Baader click lock, far better insurance than my careless thumbscrews. The review for Baader click lock showed they can handle heavy loads, just better not sit on them accidentally, certainly void that claim! ?

 

chaz

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, chaz2b said:

My bino  viewers are precious to me, so I’ll be investing in a Baader click lock, far better insurance than my careless thumbscrews. The review for Baader click lock showed they can handle heavy loads, just better not sit on them accidentally, certainly void that claim! ?

 

chaz

The Baader Clicklocks are certainly very solid when they are locked. The obvious statement is to make sure they are locked properly each time! ??

The other thing to be aware of is something coming undone that you weren't expecting as happened in my case ie the body of the PST mod coming unscrewed at the etalon because I had too much load on it in a direction which unwound it.

[Stu]

16 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

Glad it was just a lesson learned!

I couldn't help noticing those "iron sights" on your rings (pair of plates with holes)? I fancy those, who does them?

Cheers, Magnus

These were fitted by, and most likely made by Mr Peter Drew who made the scope Magnus.

[Captain Scarlet]

Well what a brilliant idea. I find myself constantly trying to line up pairs of similar corners of my rings to get a first approximation before moving on to RDF or finder. But sometimes it’s too dark to be exactly sure where those corners are. This solves that perfectly. There’s a commercial product there, I for one would happily pay.

I might get some made up.

M