My Horror Story Warning !

[The Trubble Telescope]

 

Hi all,
Just joined the forum so first time post. I just wanted to share my horror story and warn all fellow observers not to make the same stupid mistake that I did.
After spending months getting my new obseratory up and running, and with lots of problems along the way with the roll off and telescope set up ( hence my name ) I was finally ready to start
aquiring some images. I had waited ages for even just a small break in the clouds to try out my latest set up ( you've all been there ) Finally I got the chance, there was a break in the clouds, out I went
did a quick star alignment, didn't have to be accurate just wanted try out the 6.3 reducer on my 11" SCT and test the field of view. Just got some shots before the clouds started rolling in again. never mind 
I'd got something to look at indoors. Quick close the roof it's starting to rain !  Slewed the telescope and CGEM mount to horizontal position closed the roof and locked the catches as the wind was getting up again. Can't wait to see my results but it will have to wait until the morning now as it's 2.30am . Another 2 days of wind and rain set in, never mind I'll go to the obsy and get a bit of red film to put over a torch. Went in the obsy....What the!!....????? What's my telescope doing in the rafters !!!?? OH NO, in my excitement at getting some images and my hurry to close up before it rained, I had forgotten to TURN OFF THE MOUNT ! It had continued to track for 2 DAYS !! and had been pushing against the A frame of the roof for 2 days. Needless to say the CGEM mount is now ruined, making a horrible noise and juddering when slewing in RA, continuing to slew when buttons have been released then stopping suddenly, I can also hear the gears spinning round in the mount when it has stopped slewing.
Just waiting to hear back from Celestron support to find out if it can be repaired and for lockdown to end so I can take it somewhere to get the damage assessed. Luckily the OTA is undamaged... Anyone wanna buy a Knackerd CGEM mount ?

Goodnight All
The Trubble Telescope
 
Don't foget to turn the lights off when you leave, Oh ......and the mount !
Clear Skies

[Jiggy 67]

What a nightmare!!.....Welcome to the forum btw 

[AbsolutelyN]

With luck perhaps will just need a single component switching out. My mount got wet a couple of years ago and would not work at all ... thought it was going to need replacing or expensive repair but fixed with a new motherboard for £150. Good luck with it, hope it's not too costly. 

[carastro]

Oh my goodness, I see what you mean.  I have had the odd occasion when my telescope has clashed with the pier when I am imaging, and been pressing against it but could only have been for a very short time, luckily no damage done.

Welcome to SGL by the way.  Love the avatar name but not the story that went with it. 

Carole 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by carastro

[DaveL59]

Ouch that's not good at all and easily done when rushing about. It's a shame they don't engineer in some sort of loading/feedback control so that it stops the motor to prevent damage, much as they've had to fit to electric car windows to prevent injury. It can't be beyond the ability of the designers, more down to cutting costs and profit margins I expect.

[Kev M]

I have my power supply situated where I can see the big red light on it to let me know that it is still on.

Might be an idea to connect a small red light to the outside of the observatory to indicate power is on ( hindsight is always too late ).

Best wishes 

Kev

 

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 hour ago, AbsolutelyN said:

With luck perhaps will just need a single component switching out. My mount got wet a couple of years ago and would not work at all ... thought it was going to need replacing or expensive repair but fixed with a new motherboard for £150. Good luck with it, hope it's not too costly. 

Well fingers crossed !

[fifeskies]

+1 for adding a highly visible light to the power supply output

I have done the exact same thing but luckily caught it before any damage was done.

A short run of low voltage cable to a red light is the way to go , just make sure it is away from the telescopes and ideally visible from afar.

I can see my "power on" indicator from down the garden.

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 hour ago, carastro said:

Oh my goodness, I see what you mean.  I have had the odd occasion when my telescope has clashed with the pier when I am imaging, and been pressing against it but could only have been for a very short time, luckily no damage done.

Welcome to SGL by the way.  Love the avatar name but not the story that went with it. 

Carole 

 

 

Thank You

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 hour ago, DaveL59 said:

Ouch that's not good at all and easily done when rushing about. It's a shame they don't engineer in some sort of loading/feedback control so that it stops the motor to prevent damage, much as they've had to fit to electric car windows to prevent injury. It can't be beyond the ability of the designers, more down to cutting costs and profit margins I expect.

That's what I've always thought, don't know why they haven't. I can't be the only one that's happened to. 🤔

[The Trubble Telescope]

11 minutes ago, fifeskies said:

+1 for adding a highly visible light to the power supply output

I have done the exact same thing but luckily caught it before any damage was done.

A short run of low voltage cable to a red light is the way to go , just make sure it is away from the telescopes and ideally visible from afar.

I can see my "power on" indicator from down the garden.

👍 Good idea

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 hour ago, AbsolutelyN said:

With luck perhaps will just need a single component switching out. My mount got wet a couple of years ago and would not work at all ... thought it was going to need replacing or expensive repair but fixed with a new motherboard for £150. Good luck with it, hope it's not too costly. 

Thank You, I'll post the outcome

[fifeskies]

10 minutes ago, The Trubble Telescope said:

👍 Good idea

An LED stop light intended for a car (so runs on 12v also happy on 13.8v which is a fully charged battery voltage) , being LED uses very little power but is very bright on axis.

Nice and cheap from a well known auction site , or any car parts shop like Halfords.

 

You get the small rectangular screw on type that are intended for DIY trailer board lighting.

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by fifeskies

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 hour ago, Kev M said:

I have my power supply situated where I can see the big red light on it to let me know that it is still on.

Might be an idea to connect a small red light to the outside of the observatory to indicate power is on ( hindsight is always too late ).

Best wishes 

Kev

 

You know what I think I'll do ? I think I'll connect a small red light to the out outside of the obsy. Thanks Kev, great idea ! 😉

[Nikodemuzz]

Ouch, sorry to hear about your mishap! I can very easily imagine that happening to myself. Also, welcome to the forum!

From your description it sounds that some of the gears have been damaged. That doesn't necessarily mean that the whole unit is a write off. If you feel up to the task and have some tools lying around, you could follow this guide and disassemble the mount enough to see what has been broken: http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6 rebuild guide/EQ6 Strip Down Home.htm 

It is for the EQ6, but the CGEM is essentially the same. I followed the same guide when I tuned and relubricated my CGEM.

I believe there is also an RA limit function in the CGEM handset, were you can set how far east or west the mount is allowed to move. I know this doesn't help fix your current problem, but might prevent it from happening again.

[sloz1664]

I'm really gutted for you. It's hard enough putting the system together without this trauma happening. I debated whether to go roll-off or dome and dome won due to worries about the scope clashing with the roof. Look into power automation to eliminate this happening again. Don't rely on your memory........I daren't 😱😱

Oh.. and a belated welcome to the Lounge

Steve 

[The Trubble Telescope]

3 minutes ago, Nikodemuzz said:

Ouch, sorry to hear about your mishap! I can very easily imagine that happening to myself. Also, welcome to the forum!

From your description it sounds that some of the gears have been damaged. That doesn't necessarily mean that the whole unit is a write off. If you feel up to the task and have some tools lying around, you could follow this guide and disassemble the mount enough to see what has been broken: http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6 rebuild guide/EQ6 Strip Down Home.htm 

It is for the EQ6, but the CGEM is essentially the same. I followed the same guide when I tuned and relubricated my CGEM.

I believe there is also an RA limit function in the CGEM handset, were you can set how far east or west the mount is allowed to move. I know this doesn't help fix your current problem, but might prevent it from happening again.

Thank you I'm not sure I've got the confidence or ability to do that, sounds scary ! Thanks for the info

[Nikodemuzz]

10 minutes ago, Nikodemuzz said:

Ouch, sorry to hear about your mishap! I can very easily imagine that happening to myself. Also, welcome to the forum!

From your description it sounds that some of the gears have been damaged. That doesn't necessarily mean that the whole unit is a write off. If you feel up to the task and have some tools lying around, you could follow this guide and disassemble the mount enough to see what has been broken: http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6 rebuild guide/EQ6 Strip Down Home.htm 

It is for the EQ6, but the CGEM is essentially the same. I followed the same guide when I tuned and relubricated my CGEM.

I believe there is also an RA limit function in the CGEM handset, were you can set how far east or west the mount is allowed to move. I know this doesn't help fix your current problem, but might prevent it from happening again.

Continuing a little bit, the easiest way to assess the damage would probably be to head into Chapter 3 in the guide (the RA axis strip down), and there skip to the stage where there are the instructions for removing the worm carrier. If I remember correctly, removing the carrier is a simple job, and let's you see in what state the RA gears are. 

Edit. You would start from the point where it says "Loosen the upper RA worm carrier set screw."

Edited February 23, 2021 by Nikodemuzz

[Nikodemuzz]

3 minutes ago, The Trubble Telescope said:

Thank you I'm not sure I've got the confidence or ability to do that, sounds scary ! Thanks for the info

Yeah, it is pretty scary to go near these precision instruments with your own toolset. I wouldn't have had the confidence without clear instructions. I want to say that it's just a few bolts, follow the instructions and you'll be fine. But in the end only you can determine if you want to do it. 😃 It could save you the trouble of sending the whole unit for maintenance. On the other hand I'm not sure how easy it is to get spare parts from Celestron.

[banjaxed]

Welcome to SGL. Sorry to hear about your mishap but I don’t think you will ever do that again.

[Earl]

A shutdown procedure is always worth having on the wall so you dont miss anything, I hope you can get the mount fixed

[JeremyS]

Ouch, sorry to hear this. It’s a nightmare I often think about, although my mount is supposed to cut power if the current increases such as if the scope won’t move - never put it to the test, yet.....

[Starwatcher2001]

Wow, that's horrible. So sorry to hear and hope you kit is easy to fix.

I have a breaker switch on my shed that switches power off to everything, but that doesn't help if you want to leave something charging.

Welcome aboard SGL.

 

[oobydooby]

First I hope you get the damage repaired, up and running soon without too much financial or physical problems.

Second and more important... How did the shots come out? 

👍

[skyhog]

Sorry to hear this. I have often wondered if I've turned the scope off when I roll the roof back and leave everything for a while. I find it hard to believe in this day and age that an expensive piece of mechanical equipment would damage itself beyond repair at worst, or cause an expensive repair at best. I don't think you should be too hard on yourself here, there are many ways a mount could be stopped from moving apart from striking an observatory roof. I've had a slewing scope come to a complete stop because a camera cable wrapped itself around the mount for example. Surely manufacturers would expect a mount to foul in a number of easily imagined scenarios. 

Anyway, I hope you get it sorted and look forward to hearing the outcome.