What a complete waste of a clear night! Almost.

[Moonshed]

The sky looked great last night, I could see Orion just beginning to clear the trees, right then, here we go!
Laptop fired up, lift scope outside, dew heater switched on, dew/light shield on, Canon attached to camera via extender, scope balanced, PoleMaster connected - used - disconnected with perfect pa, APT on screen, camera connected , Live View on screen, mount drives on, Bahtinov mask on for focus, pick bright star, focus achieved, mask off, slew over to Orion, centre just below Alnitak to include Horsehead, centre on screen.......

.......And Canon battery dies. Sob! Sob! Sob!

Hang on, bring out the ZWO that you got for Mars, that’s supposed to be able to take nebulae as well, and now is the time to find out. Remove dead Canon, remove extender, screw in visual back, plug in Flip Mirror, fit eyepiece, plug in Barlow, plug in ZWO, balance scope, pa should still be good enough, open APT, connect ZWO to laptop, fit Bahtinov mask, focus on bright star, remove mask, open FireCapture, slew over to Orion...what? Where’s Orion gone?

Oh no! Fog! I don’t believe it, how cruel can life be? Sob! Sob! Sob! 
 

Draw curtain around lonely broken man standing at the bottom of the garden on heavily frosted ground in the pitch black of night, going numb with cold, head bowed and clutching dead Canon.

What can we learn from this tale of woe? We can order a replacement Canon AC power adapter, toss the battery, and never again have it die on you during an imaging session. 
For those readers who may have been affected by this story there is a helpline number out there somewhere.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Moonshed

[andrew s]

We have all been in a similar state due to one cause or another.

Regards Andrew 

Edited January 10, 2021 by andrew s

[Waddensky]

I'm really enjoying the fantastic images posted on this forum made by people like you willing to endure all these difficulties, but after reading stories like this I'm sooo glad I'm purely a visual observer. I drag my dob outside, and if there's fog, I drag it back in.

[jonathan]

17 hours ago, Moonshed said:

Draw curtain around lonely broken man standing at the bottom of the garden on heavily frosted ground in the pitch black of night, going numb with cold, head bowed and clutching dead Canon.

This year's showing of The Snowman still haunting you eh?

*slow reprise of The Snowman tune plays, pan out*

Edited January 11, 2021 by jonathan

[Moonshed]

1 hour ago, jonathan said:

This year's showing of The Snowman still haunting you eh?

*slow reprise of The Snowman tune plays, pan out*

I haven’t seen it, not my thing, but I’m sure the grandchildren can tell me all about it, they have square eyes 😄

[kirkster501]

You get out of the routine of imaging when there are such prolonged spells of bad weather such that when a clear night does eventually come along you waste it sorting out gremlins. as you describe!  I had same on Saturday with my camera.

If you have to set up it is a wise move to make a check list.

[F15Rules]

...and all that is SO why I'm visual only!😂

Mind you, I still had my own problems two nights ago..

- Scope objective frosted over despite 8" long dewshield

- finder scope lens fogged up

- eyepieces fogged up

All the above happened at different times of the session..in the end I whipped out my wife's hairdryer from the house and in doing so I wrecked my night vision acclimatisation..

I then almost tripped over the extension lead I had to use to make the hairdryer reach the scope..

So a rather frustrating session overall - but at least I got to see some objects in Orion!👍😊

Dave

 

 

 

[Moonshed]

As a footnote to my tale of woe I can add that my Canon AC Power Adapter arrived this morning. I got it from a company called digi-Quick, they quoted the best price, which was only £14.99 with free delivery, and considering I only ordered it on Friday and it’s Monday today that’s pretty good too.

I read that somebody had to drill a small hole into their battery holder to take the cable through but I was very relieved to find that the Canon has a small soft flap that enables the cable to fit snugly through. I really didn’t want to start drilling holes into my DSLR!

So all’s well that ends well, the power adapter works a treat and it is such a joy to know that never again will I pick up my camera only to find the battery is dead and also that it will never again die during an imaging run. 

Happy Days!

 

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Moonshed

[jonathan]

On 11/01/2021 at 11:12, F15Rules said:

...and all that is SO why I'm visual only!😂

Mind you, I still had my own problems two nights ago..

- Scope objective frosted over despite 8" long dewshield

- finder scope lens fogged up

- eyepieces fogged up

All the above happened at different times of the session..in the end I whipped out my wife's hairdryer from the house and in doing so I wrecked my night vision acclimatisation..

I then almost tripped over the extension lead I had to use to make the hairdryer reach the scope..

...and that is why I don't tend to go out with a telescope when it's in the sub-zero temperature range!  Also the risk of slipping on ice and landing hard on ice / frozen ground / tangled mess of equipment (which will probably land on top of me as well, somehow).

[Space Hopper]

On 10/01/2021 at 16:03, Moonshed said:

The sky looked great last night, I could see Orion just beginning to clear the trees, right then, here we go!
Laptop fired up, lift scope outside, dew heater switched on, dew/light shield on, Canon attached to camera via extender, scope balanced, PoleMaster connected - used - disconnected with perfect pa, APT on screen, camera connected , Live View on screen, mount drives on, Bahtinov mask on for focus, pick bright star, focus achieved, mask off, slew over to Orion, centre just below Alnitak to include Horsehead, centre on screen.......

.......And Canon battery dies. Sob! Sob! Sob!

Hang on, bring out the ZWO that you got for Mars, that’s supposed to be able to take nebulae as well, and now is the time to find out. Remove dead Canon, remove extender, screw in visual back, plug in Flip Mirror, fit eyepiece, plug in Barlow, plug in ZWO, balance scope, pa should still be good enough, open APT, connect ZWO to laptop, fit Bahtinov mask, focus on bright star, remove mask, open FireCapture, slew over to Orion...what? Where’s Orion gone?

Oh no! Fog! I don’t believe it, how cruel can life be? Sob! Sob! Sob! 
 

Draw curtain around lonely broken man standing at the bottom of the garden on heavily frosted ground in the pitch black of night, going numb with cold, head bowed and clutching dead Canon.

What can we learn from this tale of woe? We can order a replacement Canon AC power adapter, toss the battery, and never again have it die on you during an imaging session. 
For those readers who may have been affected by this story there is a helpline number out there somewhere.

 

 

The other week i was sun bothering and decided to take some images with the Canon.

Switched it on : battery light flashing red. 20 sec later it died.

Popped upstairs to get the spare, put it in the camera. Totally flat, as i'd forgotton to charge it from the last time i used it. Doh.........! 🙄 

Imaging session over before it had begun ! I'm sure we've all been there......!! 😄