My Horror Story Warning !

[The Trubble Telescope]

7 hours ago, banjaxed said:

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

That's for sure !

[The Trubble Telescope]

6 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

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.

 

Thanks, yes I'm going to do something like that before I get set up again

[tomato]

Sorry to hear and hope its not too costly in time or money.

+1 for some kind of poster reminder, here is mine after I tried to open the powered dome shutter with padlock on...

 

[geoflewis]

13 hours ago, The Trubble Telescope said:

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 !!

Hi @The Trubble Telescope, welcome to the forum and also welcome to the 'I forgot to turn off the mount tracking' club. Your horror story is very similar to my own experience, soon after I set up my new observatory back in 2016. After a couple of days poor weather I was itching to get out under the stars, but when I tried, I too found my C14 jammed in the rafters. The mount was no longer tracking as it had wound the 'Y' cable that serves both axes around the mount, until it tore in half cutting the power as seen below....

It took me a few hours to reconnect all the coloured cables, so that it worked again and about £180 to buy a new cable from Astro-Physics, which I had a cousin bring over from USA when she visited a couple of months later.

I hope that you can get your mount fixed without too much expense, or delay.

 

[The Trubble Telescope]

2 hours ago, oobydooby said:

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? 

👍

Thank you, well the shots were ok and the 6.3 reducer gave a much better, wider field of view than the  f 10 on the 11" SCT however I also discovered that I need to do a collimation, which seems a bit irrelevant at the moment, I also took some test shots with a small skywatcher scope which was giving some good results. I intend to trade in my OTA for probably a Skywatcher Esprit 100ED Triplet, all feedback on them seems good

[The Trubble Telescope]

2 hours ago, skyhog said:

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.

Thanks, yes totaly agree.  I'm waiting for a reply from Celestron I'll post what they say if I get a reply from them

[The Trubble Telescope]

31 minutes ago, tomato said:

Sorry to hear and hope its not too costly in time or money.

+1 for some kind of poster reminder, here is mine after I tried to open the powered dome shutter with padlock on...

 

Ha ha, Love it. I'm gonna do something similar !

[The Trubble Telescope]

14 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Hi @The Trubble Telescope, welcome to the forum and also welcome to the 'I forgot to turn off the mount tracking' club. Your horror story is very similar to my own experience, soon after I set up my new observatory back in 2016. After a couple of days poor weather I was itching to get out under the stars, but when I tried, I too found my C14 jammed in the rafters. The mount was no longer tracking as it had wound the 'Y' cable that serves both axes around the mount, until it tore in half cutting the power as seen below....

It took me a few hours to reconnect all the coloured cables, so that it worked again and about £180 to buy a new cable from Astro-Physics, which I had a cousin bring over from USA when she visited a couple of months later.

I hope that you can get your mount fixed without too much expense, or delay.

 

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear you had that experience but it does make me feel better knowing that I'm not alone. This is the first time I've ever been on a forum ( everyone will have to forgive me if I get things wrong, I'm not very good with technology ) everyone has been so kind and helpful with their comments and advice.

[dave34]

I feel your pain, welcome to the lounge.

[Nigella Bryant]

Sorry to hear your awful news. I hope you're able to get it fixed at not to much expense. I feel for you. So easy to do when your closing up. 

[The Trubble Telescope]

On 26/02/2021 at 22:19, Nigella Bryant said:

Sorry to hear your awful news. I hope you're able to get it fixed at not to much expense. I feel for you. So easy to do when your closing up. 

Thank you, well it goes off to a celestron workshop today for evaluation  . The expense has already started  £80 to send , mostly insurance cover  🤨

[JSeaman]

It seems you're not alone in this from the responses! It's not an issue I have ever had but I made my set up do a lot of the work for me - I have a single smart plug which is in the chain to everything. I have a dynamic timer on that which is set every time I am imaging but with a failsafe timer at 6:30 every morning which will turn the plug off. I haven't needed the failsafe yet (several years later) but it's nice to know it is there!

[The Trubble Telescope]

16 minutes ago, JSeaman said:

It seems you're not alone in this from the responses! It's not an issue I have ever had but I made my set up do a lot of the work for me - I have a single smart plug which is in the chain to everything. I have a dynamic timer on that which is set every time I am imaging but with a failsafe timer at 6:30 every morning which will turn the plug off. I haven't needed the failsafe yet (several years later) but it's nice to know it is there!

That sounds like a good idea, I'm no good with electrics but I will get an electrician to install something for me even if it's just a simple circut breaker which will be the last thing that I ALWAYS turn off when I leave the obsy.

[JSeaman]

I used an Amazon smart plug, £15 ish and no electrician needed. Just plug that in to the feed to the scope

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 minute ago, JSeaman said:

I used an Amazon smart plug, £15 ish and no electrician needed. Just plug that in to the feed to the scope

Ok mate thanks I'll check that out

[JOC]

What a train of disasters!  I like the idea of the light on the outside of the building and think theidea of the use of the lamps that are used on tailboards could be really useful as they are surely waterproof!

[The Trubble Telescope]

4 minutes ago, JOC said:

What a train of disasters!  I like the idea of the light on the outside of the building and think theidea of the use of the lamps that are used on tailboards could be really useful as they are surely waterproof!

Yes I've had a few helpful suggestions from SG members ( thank you all )  just looking into the best wat forward for me.

[Macavity]

I usually operate my scopes remotely via 30m USB link. But THAT is still
the "stuff on nightmares" - No schadefreude, but I did buy a few budget
Low-light MINI security cameras and switchable "IR" lamp for the obsy. 🙂

A coax multiplexer allows me to see my (Video Astronomy) Scope view,
Finder View, All-Sky View and Observatory view. I still "worry" of course! 🙄

The bottom right shows the scope & mount BRIGHTLY illuminated by IR!
But there is usually enough "ambient light" around to see outlines of stuff...
Neighbours' security, street + bedroom lights? But that's another story. 🤔


 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Macavity

[gajjer]

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

[The Trubble Telescope]

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

 

2 hours ago, gajjer said:

I'm a bit late in telling you this, but I have stalled my NEQ6 several times. It sounded horrendous; like the gears were being ripped up, but actually there was no damage. The stepper motors a quite small but there is a high gear ratio. In my case the motors simply stalled. If yours was causing a noise after 'the event' ( of which we will no longer speak ), it may be that there was some movement in the adjustment of the drive causing binding. A previous response referred to the Astrobaby strip down tutorial and I can thoroughly recommend that.

I hope it's just a mechanical tune up for you. Still, events like this do open our eyes to the possible failure modes and what we should be doing to avoid them. I wish I could say it will be all plain sailing from here on but I am afraid there are so many things that could possibly go wrong that inevitably over time you will probably experience them all.

cheers

gaj

The CGEM is definitely damaged, motors still whirring after it's stopped slewing , very juddery motion and it continues to slew  ( on max speed ) for about 12"- 15" after button relese. Well either way it's on it's way to a celestron workshop.  They said they would assess the damage and let me know ( stay tuned ! ) At least they are going to update the firmware for me, never been done, mount 7 years old. Tried doing it myself but if you know me you know that me and technology don't mix.! 🤣 

[gajjer]

1 hour ago, The Trubble Telescope said:

but if you know me you know that me and technology don't mix.! 🤣 

Yes. I see what you mean!

gaj

[tonylumley]

thinking about this situation, would it be possible to build an isolation switch (like they use on factory floors to isolate plant) into the sliding roof, ? I am assuming you don't need the mount to power up when the roof is closed, and unattended, this could ensure that when the roof is shut there can be no power to your mount,  just found this on google Emergency Electrical STOP Switch 240V "8.98 at the moment, but even at £19, 63 could be worth an investment, further details, further details  SolenoidValves,  01454334990  in Bristol, 

[newbie alert]

Sorry to hear of your situation, the motors in the cgem have plastic cogs and is sort of a safety barrier against damage.. unfortunately the cogs aren't sold as spares so a complete motor should fix the issue, depending on any other damage caused.. they're not that hard to work on.. hope it gets fixed ASAP 

[The Trubble Telescope]

1 hour ago, tonylumley said:

thinking about this situation, would it be possible to build an isolation switch (like they use on factory floors to isolate plant) into the sliding roof, ? I am assuming you don't need the mount to power up when the roof is closed, and unattended, this could ensure that when the roof is shut there can be no power to your mount,  just found this on google Emergency Electrical STOP Switch 240V "8.98 at the moment, but even at £19, 63 could be worth an investment, further details, further details  SolenoidValves,  01454334990  in Bristol, 

Another useful suggestion, Thank you

[The Trubble Telescope]

Hi all,
Sorry for the delay in posting.
Just giving an update on the damaged CGEM mount.
Sent the mount off to the Celestron Dealer in Thatcham Berkshire.
The Celestron team were very helpful and said the RA motor needed replacing and that it would cost £96 What a relief that there wasn't more serious damage as I feared the worst.
I dealt with Daniel who was very friendly and helpful and easy to talk to, he kept me informed of progress on the mount and made sure that everything was working ok before sending it back. 
I am extremely pleased with the Celestron support team, and wouldn't hesitate to contact them again if needed.
Thanks again to Daniel.

I have since wired in a little red light that comes on when the mount is switched on and shines though a little hole in the side of the obsy right next to the lock, so I can see it when I lock up even in daylight. Thanks to everyone's suggestions, I don't think I will let that happen again.!

Also wanted to mention that I had my DSLR camera ( 600D ) modified by 'Astronomiser' in Derbyshire. Rear filter removal and sensor repositioning £90. Some people try it themselves, I would rather leave it to someone who knows what they are doing and Astronomiser obviously does. He also has new and used cameras for sale.
Clear Skies