Is effort rewarded with clear skies credit?

[fortytwo]

Hello all,

I think the astrophotography gods owe me some clear skies as yesterday we emabrked on our family holiday to the south coast.

We arrived and shared a nice meal with family and then returned to our hoilday rental and settled down in front of the TV and watched a progamme on the JWST in which they talked about the fact that the JWST had 344 single points of failure that had to work to achieve the mission.
Whilst watching, this prompted my mind to idly tick off all the kit I had brought down, telescope, check....cameras various, check,....HEQ5 mount head, check....HEQ5 mount legs, check....bolt and acessory tray to fix them together................b****r 😂

Quick discussion, look on Amazon, nope, right son and I set off at 22:00 to recover the AWOL object returning at 02:20 due to M25 closures on way back, I had afterall planned the holiday for this week due to absence of moon even though we need to make another return journey this week to get daughters A level results, all agreed with 'The Boss' of course.

With all these sacrifices this must guarantee clear skies right? 😂

Now we've all laughed at my misfortune, has anybody any similar stories, what absurd lengths have we gone to for this hobby and should we in fact earn clear skies credit?

Cheers,
Jeff

Edited August 12, 2023 by fortytwo

[DirkSteele]

It should! I once forget the tripod and ended up doing a 200 mile round trip back into central London but was rewarded with a couple of glorious nights around new moon.

 

Don’t forget to say thanks to the clouds gods lest they smite you next time for a lack of gratitude.

[bosun21]

Many years ago I was on a camping trip to the Highlands of Scotland with all the necessary astro kit. I had indeed brought everything I required astronomy wise but to my horror I discovered I didn't include the tent pegs with the camping gear 

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

21 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I discovered I didn't include the tent pegs

You aren't the first, you won't be the last. When doing my field work geology mapping in North Wales I found I had made that mistake. I was able to improvise from some barbed wire. Flexing short lengths back and forth to fatigue break them was time consuming but then I bent them into 'staples' and forced them into the ground, they worked quite well!

[bosun21]

2 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

You aren't the first, you won't be the last. When doing my field work geology mapping in North Wales I found I had made that mistake. I was able to improvise from some barbed wire. Flexing short lengths back and forth to fatigue break them was time consuming but then I bent them into 'staples' and forced them into the ground, they worked quite well!

Good improvisation on your part. Unfortunately I was in the middle of the moors with no fence or man made structure for many miles. It was a long night for sure.