Horror Stories

[JSeaman]

Following on from another thread today about a scope crashing into the rafters I thought we could share our collective disasters. So what is the worst thing that has happened to you on a night imaging?

My worst was when I had the time set wrong in CDC and tried to slew to a target which was somewhere below the horizon, the mount slewed and telescopes were trying to drive through the pier while I tried to hit the stop button. Sadly the wifi connection failed so I ended up pulling the power cable out the mount to end the chaos (and then changed to a cat 5 connection!)

[RobertI]

Not really imaging disasters, but I had a scope fall to the ground when a clamp failed - fortunately it was a small scope and it fell onto a carpeted garage floor. I was also distracted when getting set up one night, and the mount was just balanced on the tripod - it ended up crashing five feet onto concrete. Amazingly, no damage - these CG5 mounts were solidly built! 

[JSeaman]

Those mounts fall with a bang!

[LukeSkywatcher]

I once rolled my wheelchair off of a roadside curb because I was too busy looking up at the night sky. Another time, I crashed into a lamppost, for the same reason.

[carastro]

I had my CCD Camera and Electronic filter wheel (EFW) fitted to the back of a Samyang lens.  The Samyang lens was held on by 3D printed mounting rings but the EFW and Camera were screwed in the back of the lens via an adapter.

I had some-one working on a repair to my obsy during the daytime, and decided to put a scope cover over the kit in case it rained while the dome was open as it was forecast at some point). 

The next time I wanted to use the rig, I pulled the scope cover off, and it caught on the EFW pulling it in an anticlockwise direction and thus unwinding it from the adapter.  I heard a clunk and then a horrible crash as the Filterwheel and camera crashed onto the ground, all £2700s worth of equipment.

As it turned out nothing got damaged, but I didn't know that until the next time I could use my imaging gear, so it was a "horror" experience at the time.

I now have had a 3rd ring added to hold the EFW and camera. 

Carole 

Edited March 9, 2021 by carastro

[JSeaman]

Love the wheelchair incident - I was stood on the pavement at midnight the other night walking the dog whilst trying to do some rudimentary trigonometry with my finger and thumb at right angles pointing at the sky. I hope nobody saw me!

 

The camera drop horror story sounds genuinely terrible!!

[andrew s]

I have mentioned thus before but my observatory burnt to the ground taking a 12" Newtonian, Tak Sky 90, Parallax mount plus lot more with it.

Fortunately,  the insurance paid out.

Regards Andrew 

[JSeaman]

Woah that's a proper horror story, what caused the fire?

[Captain Scarlet]

7 minutes ago, andrew s said:

I have mentioned thus before but my observatory burnt to the ground taking a 12" Newtonian, Tak Sky 90, Parallax mount plus lot more with it.

Fortunately,  the insurance paid out.

Regards Andrew 

Oh dear. Did the 12” mirror survive?

My worst so far was similar to one above, I placed my az-eq6 onto its tripod and forgot to clamp it down. Trying to attach the scope I pushed it off. Luckily mostly onto grass but the saddle bolts got bent.

[andrew s]

1 minute ago, Captain Magenta said:

Oh dear. Did the 12”  mirror survive?

No, It was a very hot fire that melted the low spec aluminium alloy and the mirror shattered on impact with the concrete block the steel pier was set in. The pier and the padlock that was on the door was all the survived.

Regards Andrew 

[JSeaman]

Blimey that's a proper disaster! Glad your insurance covered it!

[andrew s]

13 minutes ago, JSeaman said:

Woah that's a proper horror story, what caused the fire?

A dehumidifier caught fire. It was the only thing on as I was about to go on holiday. I had to damp the fire down before rushing to the airport.

Regards Andrew 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Not really a horror story, but of the 4 new bits of kit I've bought over the last year I managed to immediately drop 3 of them. No damage done in any case as only short drops, but still, I'm being super careful with the 4th item!!

[JSeaman]

Not a great start to the holiday Andrew, scary stuff!!

 

I did drop my new 100-400 L lens on the first day I used it, I was particularly happy about that one!

 

[paraman]

3 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I once rolled my wheelchair off of a roadside curb because I was too busy looking up at the night sky. Another time, I crashed into a lamppost, for the same reason.

I walked into a cow one night looking upwards at the Pleiades. There was an ancient right of grazing where we lived, we woke up one morning to cattle munching on our roses.

[JSeaman]

That's amazing!

[Captain Scarlet]

32 minutes ago, andrew s said:

A dehumidifier caught fire. It was the only thing on as I was about to go on holiday. I had to damp the fire down before rushing to the airport.

Regards Andrew 

You must’ve been delightful company during the holiday

[Louis D]

37 minutes ago, andrew s said:

A dehumidifier caught fire. It was the only thing on as I was about to go on holiday. I had to damp the fire down before rushing to the airport.

Regards Andrew 

Not astro related, but it reminds me of my wife's workplace where the batteries in a UPS caught fire, destroying an entire server room.  She and a coworker actually fought down the flames using fire extinguishers brought to them from all around the building.  They managed to save the office building by keeping it out of the drop ceiling (the fire department arrived 15 minutes after the fire was out), but my wife was hacking up black soot for days.  The room was nearly an entire loss except for some backup tapes that somehow survived in their tape drives.  As a result of this fire, we will not use battery based UPSs inside our house.  There are flywheel based ones, but they are only made in enterprise class sizes ($100,000+ units).

[carastro]

Quote

I have mentioned thus before but my observatory burnt to the ground taking a 12" Newtonian, Tak Sky 90, Parallax mount plus lot more with it.

Fortunately,  the insurance paid out.

OMG!!!

[John]

My Vixen ED102SS refractor fell off it's mount a couple of years ago onto our patio. It must have fallen about 5 feet onto the concrete

Very fortunately the damage was limited to a paint scrape and a shallow dent at the end of the dew shield and a bent focuser pinion shaft. Both were repairable / replaceable and the optics / collimation were not effected. Obviously quite well built scopes !

I also dropped a Nagler 3mm - 6mm zoom onto concrete a few years ago from about 3 feet. Again I was very lucky and the damage was limited to a split rubber eye cup, which I managed to replace.

Things could have turned out MUCH worse with both these incidents  

Edited March 9, 2021 by John

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, andrew s said:

I have mentioned thus before but my observatory burnt to the ground taking a 12" Newtonian, Tak Sky 90, Parallax mount plus lot more with it.

Fortunately,  the insurance paid out.

Regards Andrew 

I do remember you telling that sad story Andrew. But I don’t recall the Tak scope part. I can assure you I would have remembered.

[andrew s]

33 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

You must’ve been delightful company during the holiday

I am a fatalist and work on the principle that if you can do something about it do it, if not don't worry about it. As I said the insurance paid up and I had fun choosing new kit from scratch. Indeed getting it all at once resulted in a better setup. 

Regards Andrew 

[Stu]

This was my biggest disaster. Tall spindly 8” f8 scope on an EQ platform. I had left it out with the cover on, and then it got caught by a sudden gust of wind.

It was a complete shock when I checked it over I must say, I didn’t think it would do that much damage! Fortunately I had a spare top ring and repairing it wasn’t as difficult as I thought.

[andrew s]

5 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

I do remember you telling that sad story Andrew. But I don’t recall the Tak scope part. I can assure you I would have remembered.

I was not very impressed with it. I just used it for finding with a video camera!

[JeremyS]

I think we all felt for you when that happened @Stu 😩