Well, No one is perfect !!

[Mr Thingy]

3 hours ago, ddm4313 said:

I got frustrated a week ago because my PC wasn't detecting the mount, fast forward 20 mins and  I realize the cable wasn't plugged n.

I did similar, only mine was plugged in but the mount not turned on.

At least NINA reminds me in some cases when I forget something, like forgetting to connect PHD2, or cooling my camera. Only so much my little brain can cope with, so I'm happy to offload some checks and balances to our robot overlords. 

[Zermelo]

OK, no-one's owned up to this one yet.

Mid-way through a session on a very dark night, my scope stopped responding to one of the four slew buttons. Well, looking through the eyepiece, it seemed to be having an attempt at least, and then giving up. I continued with three buttons plus some manual nudging when necessary, trying to imagine what mishap might have befallen the gears that could be causing such a thing, and wondering whether to send the mount back.
Eventually I gave up and switched on my headtorch, to find the power cable wrapped three or four times around the mount until it could go no further.

 

[iapa]

Oooooo, I’ve not tried that one yet

[barbulo]

OMG, this thread is a gold mine! 
As a beginner I don’t have many anecdotes to tell: cap on, clutches untightened...  I’m pretty sure the rest will come sooner or later. 

[Astro Noodles]

2 minutes ago, barbulo said:

OMG, this thread is a gold mine! 
As a beginner I don’t have many anecdotes to tell: cap on, clutches untightened...  I’m pretty sure the rest will come sooner or later. 

I'm a beginner myself but the silly mistakes are mounting up fast.

This week I bought a new mount only to find it won't attach to my tripod. So bought a new tripod - but it doesn't attach to that either.

[fozzybear]

Loaded car up I thought.  Dog wanted to go out so job done there. Drove 20km to my fav dark site unloaded mount. Looking around in the car where's the scope sure I put the case in the car. reloaded car drove home and lo and behold it was there on the driveway.  damn pets in the confusion of letting the dog out and lapse of brain power. Duh    

[BCN_Sean]

Not done any seriously bad ones yet as I've not spent enough money to get to that point, but the other night I thought I'd lined up a touch above Sirius to get some more data in IC2177 before it got too low, thought I'd got M50 in the frame to use as my reference from the previous session, turned out it was M47.  Did have some fun though, first time I tried configuring EKOS on the Pi... I'd forgotten I'd left the one that usually lives under the TV turned on and loaded with the backup SD of Astroberry, and as that is connected to the hardwire the computer was latching on to that (bit of a red face on that one, as when work is quiet I moonlight as a network and systems tech).

[M40]

I can't possibly be the only one to drop a dust cap in the dark, look for ages with the headtorch, give up thinking I will find it in the morning, only to find it in my pocket a week later.... what's that about 🤦‍♂️

[Stu1smartcookie]

52 minutes ago, M40 said:

I can't possibly be the only one to drop a dust cap in the dark, look for ages

I've done this many times lol ...although with small screws that hold the 1 1/4 adapter in the 2" holder that ive unscrewed too much .. frantically searching for ages on the ground that makes me look like a complete  @*%!  lol . 

[BCN_Sean]

5 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

I've done this many times lol ...although with small screws that hold the 1 1/4 adapter in the 2" holder that ive unscrewed too much .. frantically searching for ages on the ground that makes me look like a complete  @*%!  lol . 

I've done that as well, many times.  So much so that I got a 6mm nut, glued a rare earth magnet on to, then threaded it with a metre of string and keep it in an old film canister in the part of my kit bag that's the furthest away from anything that can be affected by magnets.

[cajen2]

I went to a star party, carefully packing my 8" dob in its carrying bag and making sure I had my eyepieces and accessory case. For a couple of days, we only had heavy rain and cloud, so no observing possible. Then the sun came and and in anticipation of a clear night, I unpacked the scope to collimate it. Then I found I'd left the dob base at home, two hours' drive away......bozo!

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by cajen2

[Guest]

I have made the usual bonehead newbie mistakes, but i have only been at this for 18 months or so.  I am sure a grade a1 mess up is just around the corner 

[Carbon Brush]

I once went outside with a a CG5 GT mount and tried to set up. It would not align. Kept going to odd places in the sky.
Obviously not a broken mount or motor failure and software doesn't wear out. What can it be?
In the end I gave up and used the mount manually, getting a nice evening of viewing.

Next day in the warm and light house I set up the mount to investigate.
At first it seemed to be 180deg out, or 12h or RA when going to targets. As well as something else in Alt.
Alternatively it was 6 months off.
Eventually I realised it was the *&^%$£ US date format used by Celestron.
10th March or 3rd October?
When will the US join the rest of the world?

[Louis D]

10 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

10th March or 3rd October?
When will the US join the rest of the world?

In conversation, does the rest of the world always say 10th of March or 10th March?  Folks in the US are just used to saying March 10th, and so we write it the same way.  The 4th of July and Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) are the main two exceptions that I know of.

[Ratlet]

Our blessed programmers at work have a habit of using us and EU date fromats for different parts of the same bit of ruddy software.  If we get a fresh install I usually try to configure it with a date like 13/01 to figure out which way round it should go as it will at least throw an error on illegal dates.

Don't get me started on them doing Norwegian localisations where they use , instead of . as a decimal.

 

[Peter Drew]

The Sun can be surprisingly difficult to find in a solar telescope.  More so if you've left the objective cap on.      🙂

Edited January 30, 2023 by Peter Drew
typo

[jfrijhoff]

My stacked images had lines running over it, bummed because I got quite some hours on the heart and soul nebula. Must be walking noise, people agreed. Tried dithering, same thing. Turned out I hadn’t properly cleaned my lens and it had streaks on it… Then the dither settings on my SWSA2i got saved, and when I didn’t want to dither, it did so anyway, ruining >90% of the subs and another many clear nights before I figured that one out…

[Stickey]

On 30/01/2023 at 01:07, cajen2 said:

Then I found I'd left the dob base at home, two hours' drive away......bozo!

 

Not quite as bad, but I managed to leave the mount head at home when I was trying to set up at a dark site. 30 mins each way 😳

[SuburbanMak]

On 23/04/2021 at 19:51, Zermelo said:

 power cable wrapped three or four times around the mount until it could go no further.

Guilty as charged!  

[iapa]

22 hours ago, Ratlet said:

Our blessed programmers at work have a habit of using us and EU date fromats for different parts of the same bit of ruddy software.  If we get a fresh install I usually try to configure it with a date like 13/01 to figure out which way round it should go as it will at least throw an error on illegal dates.

Don't get me started on them doing Norwegian localisations where they use , instead of . as a decimal.

 

I try to stick to ISO format when putting dates,

2023-01-31T18:54:48+00:00