Astronomy Injury

[Dann]

Hi all,

 

A few weeks back I did something a little silly. I was behind the mount in the 'looking through the polar scope' position, the guide scope looked out of alignment with the main OTA and thought I would give it a little adjustment. Thinking I had hold of the guide scope with one hand I loosened the thumb screws and the guide scope and camera slid out and hit me right in the throat, bounced off quite nicely. Thankfully it was only a ZWO mini guide scope and camera. 

 

Felt a bit bruised for a few days and no harm done but it got me thinking. Anyone else happy to share any astronomy related mishaps and injuries? I'm sure they're quite common seeing as we fiddle around in the darkness 🙂 

[Ouroboros]

I have to be careful with my back. So a poorly executed lift of my 18kg AZ-EQ6 mount can make me sore for several days. So, I’m very careful to lift if carefully from where it’s stored (as in the old mantra “lift with the legs and not with the back” etc) and keep it close to the body as I carry it. One day I was carrying it outside, and as I placed it on the tripod base it toppled over heading straight for the concrete paving. Ahhhh!!! Fortunately (kind of) my quick reactions made me grab it and slow  its fall so that it had a reasonably soft landing. The mount was fine …. my back wasn’t. I’m even more careful now. 

[Shimrod]

1 hour ago, Dann said:

Felt a bit bruised for a few days and no harm done but it got me thinking. Anyone else happy to share any astronomy related mishaps and injuries? I'm sure they're quite common seeing as we fiddle around in the darkness 🙂 

I removed the counterweights from my AVX before removing the OTA (8"  EdgeHD). As the tube started swinging around, I put my hand out to stop the OTA hitting the tripod - which worked but only because my hand was caught between the two. Very bruised and painful but thankfully no damage to the tube - and I've learnt to double check the sequence in which I do things.

[Ouroboros]

😐 oohhh.  I’m always careful when putting on or taking off the counterweights. One of those landing on yer foot could spoil your evening couldn’t it! 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

My old metal garden chair collapsed on me last week while I was at the eyepiece. It hurt but i jumped up like I was 18 again. Adrenaline combined with embarrassment knocked 35 years off me for ten seconds. It was great until the pain kicked in.

 

[tomato]

I’m sure this is a common one but space is so tight in the dome I have to duck down under the C/W bar to get to the other side of the scope. Needless to say in the dark and the C/Ws not staying in the same place my head has tried to occupy the same space and time as the bar, with the result that I’ve seen stars of a different kind on more than one occasion.🤕

[JTEC]

Plenty to chose from 🙄. Mostly around mounts: bad carrying practice with equatorial heads like EQ6s but years ago with one of the weighty AE mounts. I never actually drop the mounts in question but, for some time after the AE incident I wished that I had. It mucked my back up for some time. The mount would no doubt have escaped but for a scratch or two. Lowering a mount awkwardly or ‘saving’  it can also put your body through some dangerous extended positions. My old 12.5 inch Meade Starfinder was something of a beast in this regard (though it performed well). It was heavy, fat and slippery, especially when damp. That gave me a few tweaks.  And, of course, big Dobsonian bases can catch you out, as you do the straight leg waddle but in a dodgy extended position. So can lowering heavy Dob OTAs into their base, especially if you don’t slot in the bearings first time and have to support and manoeuvre the weight of the tube for longer than you planned for.  My ‘worst’ scope accident was when I stupidly failed to properly secure the legs of an early Berlebach tripod carrying a GPDX. It collapsed like a shot giraffe and the mount cut into my forehead as it fell, leaving me with a scar.  Nowadays I am much more careful!

[Captain Scarlet]

Between where I use my scopes and where they live there is a sliding almost-all-glass door. Last year whilst setting up in the dark I charged back inside to collect the next bit of kit to take outside, forgetting that I’d closed the door after the previous trip. I walked straight into the glass and broke my nose. The scratch on the door-glass where my glasses hit it is still there as a reminder.

Magnus

 

[Nigella Bryant]

Amateur astronomy is hazardous, lol. I once broke a rib lifting a 12inch Meade GPS on to it's pillar. It's a heavy beast and held it wrong. Equipment should come with a health warning, lol. My days of carrying equipment are gone. 

[Nyctimene]

Counterweights seem to be a quite common enemy. In my case, it was a fixed one, attached to the massive equatorial mount of the 18" Newtonian, the Starkenburg-Sternwarte had been donated months before. In the observatory's completely dark dome, the counterweight was just at the appropriate height, when I went around the scope, to hit my left eyebrow - resulting in a pretty bleeding cut, that had to undergo a surgical treatment at midnight. Lesson learned - my 18" Dob has no counterweights. ( - But wheelbarrow handles, that stay fixed for convenience when I'm observing. I've learned to walk around the scope always at the front side, as you have to do, when approaching a horse.... all went well, up to now!)

Stephan

[Peter Drew]

Like most, I've "done my back in" a few times.  I found that the most likely operation that causes it is placing a heavy OTA on to the back seat of a car.  The final motion of placing it far enough in tends to leave your back inadequately supported.  Sometimes it takes another day before the result kicks in!    😱

[Ags]

My most expensive and disabling injury (if it can be called such) was crushing my glasses one fine evening. Most painful was the papercut inflicted on me while replacing the leg clamp on my tripod. My deepest psychological injury was the slug that crawled up my arm on a dark and terrible night. 

[JeremyS]

Trying to find the globular cluster M79 in Lepus, which is at a low elevation. I climbed onto the rockery to give me a boost over the hedge using 20 x 70 binos. I became disoriented using the binos, stepped back and tumbled on the rockery. Saved the binos, but bruised my arms.

[glafnazur]

I've had quite a few grazes and cuts handling equipment and often a bad back, however my worst mishap occurred one Christmas a few years back. I was out with the scope when my wife popped her head out the back offering me a Lily O'Brien sticky toffee chocolate. I gratefully accepted and was merrily munching away  when I looked up to decide on my next target and as I did the gooey chocolate shot to the back of my throat making me choke. I thought I was a goner but fortunately after much gasping for breath the darn thing shifted. I thought afterwards what a dumb way to die that would have been.

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

In the middle of a field, miles from nowhere, I was sat in a reclining chair using some binos to scan the Milky Way in Cygnus. I leant back to view the zenith, at which point one of the bolts holding the chair together sheared and the thing collapsed backwards. I ended up with my head in the damp grass and my feet pointing towards Deneb and the chair angled back in excess of 45 degrees. I had the presence of mind to hold on to the binos as in the spur of the moment I thought physical injury and compressed vertebrae were preferable to damaged optical kit. I did a brief imitation of a dung beetle on it's back but managed to right myself using my elbows, as I needed my hands to hold on to my precious 10x56's. The binos were unharmed, but my dignity slightly dented. Luckily I managed to repair the chair.

[DaveS]

3 hours ago, tomato said:

I’m sure this is a common one but space is so tight in the dome I have to duck down under the C/W bar to get to the other side of the scope. Needless to say in the dark and the C/Ws not staying in the same place my head has tried to occupy the same space and time as the bar, with the result that I’ve seen stars of a different kind on more than one occasion.🤕

Oh yes, banged my head on the counterweight shaft too many times.

Not really an injury (Though it could have been) was when getting the RA cradle on my DDM 85 onto the pier during the obsy construction. I had managed to carry it out to the obsy and rested it on the platform before climbing in to pick it up. I've done enough manual handling to know how to lift heavy objects (This was 25 kg). Unfortunately in keeping it close to my chest I lost my balance and went tumbling with the cradle going flying across the obsy and me impacting the north wall getting a few bruises in the process.

Fortunately I had contractors in doing some work in the garden so they were able to help me get the cradle onto the pier after I had recovered myself.

[tooth_dr]

Sort of astro related… I was pulling a cable through a duct for electric for my new dome.  Well then cable stuck I tugged and then it gave and I hit my knuckle off the nearby pebbledashed wall

 

[Peter Drew]

Good job you're used to the sight of blood!    🙂

[tooth_dr]

3 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Good job you're used to the sight of blood!    🙂

Usually other people’s works best for me!

My dad always had a saying “the job’s not done right until you draw blood” and so often it’s true.

[DaveS]

Ouch!

[Space Hopper]

Lifting and manoeuvring a heavy Berlebach tripod can often be hazardous.

The weight of it can make it close rather abruptly as you lift it upwards invariably

resulting in crushed fingers underneath.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Never an actual injury, but boy, does an EQ mount swing around fast when you accidentally unlock the clutch with no counterweights!!

I've since discovered I'm just about able to carry my full setup (eq6r, esprit 100, and associated imaging gubbins) in and out without having to disassemble, but am slightly terrified that one day in the winter I'll slip on some ice while bringing it in at 2am only to be found much later on in the morning by my partner, frozen like Jack Nicholson in The Shining...

Edited October 1, 2021 by The Lazy Astronomer

[The Lazy Astronomer]

54 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Sort of astro related… I was pulling a cable through a duct for electric for my new dome.  Well then cable stuck I tugged and then it gave and I hit my knuckle off the nearby pebbledashed wall

 

Oh, how we suffer for our art! (science)

[geoflewis]

I think I’ve posted this previously on a different thread. I split my scalp open standing up after tidying some cables at the base of my pier and cracked my head on the CW securing knobs of my AP1200 mount. I certainly saw lots of stars and boy did it bleed a lot; I had to go to A&E to have it glued and then couldn’t wash my hair for over 1 week whilst it mended.

The glued scalp….

and the offending CWs….

[RobertI]

Twanging the elasticated eyepatch onto my naked eyeball. 🧐