Astro Pixie's

[Greg]

You know who I'm talking about..

Last night started well with the ED80 set up...Just a quick alignment as I wasn't bothering with any imaging just some observing.

The sky was clear so I gave Steve a call...After some persuasion...NOT... He came over. I set up the Newt and then the pixies arrived

After a good view of the Double Custer and Andromeda we proceeded to go for the Veil...Steve found it in the 8" With an Oiii filter

I was busy imaging with the Canon.

Then the chief elf paid a visit.....

My beloved D60 fell off the ED80..Don't ask me how, I check and double check the screws every time I put that camera on a scope. Luckily it landed on the 1 1/4 " adapter and bounced onto the wife's anti dew device (Babyliss 1200!!) And made a horrible tinkly rattly noise on the patio....

Steve's comment...."Err what was that!!"

After investigation the damage seems to be cosmetic, most of the force was absorbed by the battery grip and nose piece (Praise the Lord). I have spoken to Steve today and have done all the focusing checks he recommended and all seems to be ok..

Then one of the pixies moved the ring nebula...Surly if you can find the Veil East and West you can find the ring.....No! No sireeee. It wasn't there....It's gone...Probably for good. What the hell I've taken loads of photo's of it so someone else can have it for a while!

Time was getting on and it was time to pack away.....The pixie scumbags had been in my house and moved all of my astro boxes and fiddly bits...The caps had all moved the the cases had disappeared, living in a house with a 4 yr old and an 8 month old, leaving astro gear around is not a good idea.

And to top it all the pixie chef forgot to put the pizza in the oven.

After about 10 images all I got was one half decent one of the Double Cluster....

Bah Humbug....

[Martin 2]

Odd that, in the short space of time I was out before I was dewed out I tool some subs of the ring, checked them on the computer today and its not on them ?????.

M2

[CELESCOPE]

sounds like a good start to the night ended in disaster Greg, those pixies have always been a problem , but onthe serious note , i hpe that camera is ok , heck!! and i thought i had bad luck ,

Rog

[FLO]

And to top it all the pixie chef forgot to put the pizza in the oven.

Aah .... I thought we were missing something

It was a good session! Greg set the scopes up and had Neptune centered in the eyepiece (8mm Baader Hyperion with Moonfish 2" barlow on an ED80 PRO) before I arrived. It was about 20 degrees above the horizon in the South but showed a clear light blue colour 8)

I am biased but I'll say it anyway - the Baader Red-Dot finder is the biz!!!

[scotty365]

You guys are so lucky on two points.

1. Ive seen about 3/4 of broken cloud in the last 3-4 days

2. Ive got an odd-sock-goblin livin in our house - hope he dosent have a passion for astro gear .

Scotty