OTA Dropped!

[jasonp]

So last night after some nice viewing showing my lil sister around the sky, we decide its a tad cold and pack up.

I rest the OTA on my 200P upright in the shed then walking back to fetch the tripod. Get 5 meters away and hear a bang! Yup it fell over

Luckilly nothing was damaged but will check the collimation later.

Just want to know has anyone else had silly mistakes like this ? Make me feel better

[yeti monster]

Silly mistakes? Oh yes, but thankfully, not with my scopes (yet). I recently jacked up Mrs. Yetis c*r, but the lower suspension arm turned out to be too weak to take the weight (that's modern c*rs for you I guess) and it did bend, proper bend too! Some heat and some deft blows brought it back to servicable shape whilst a replacement was sourced.

[AndyH]

Have dropped the Tal 200K on my foot from a height of 3ft. OTA and collimation fine, but, my god, my foot hurt like hell. Thankfully I was wearing my surplus german army boots, otherwise I may have been picking severed toes from my socks.

Andy.

[mattifor]

I feel for you I my wifes 1st 10" newtonion tripping whilst carrying it to setit up outside, but I then fell onto it crusshing it, It was a right off.

Luckilly the house hold insuranece covered it.

However my luck did not last the replacement arrived. by this time I had an observatory buillt.

I set up the pier ready for the new scope, when it arrived I took it to the observatory put it onto the mount and returned to the house for dinner on my return I found the New telescope on the floor, some how I had not tightened the dove tale sufficiently and it had fallen, the primary mirror had broken loose and the tube damaged.

this time I had to foot the bill.

I know this won't make you feelbetter but you are not alone these things happen.

It will make you more careful.

Check your insurance polocy see if you are covered for accidental damage.

I have now covered all my equipment separately, but its not cheap.

Ivor

[John]

I knocked a finder scope off my 10" newtonian a while back. As it fell it hit two other scopes marking them as well as the 10" - so a "3 for 1" deal there then

Fortunately there was only one slight dent on the 10" tube and the marks on the other scopes polished off - I did utter a few choice words when it happened though

The finder was completely unmarked .....

[bish]

A cat ran out infront of my car with my OTA on the back seat. Lucky for the cat I didn't run it over but did an emergency stop shooting the OTA into the back of the seat. Next time I'll secure the scope better, or just run the cat over.

[russ]

Just want to know has anyone else had silly mistakes like this ? Make me feel better

Yes, i had a really bad one. Have to go back to 2003. Just got my brand new EQ6 from Orion Optics and a new dovetail for my secondhand Orion Optics GX250. Set them up in the garden, walked indoors, just as i went through the door i heard a crash bang wallop. Came out to find the Orion tube laying on the ground with a massive dent in the side. Fallen off the EQ6 and bounced off the steel leg.

Thought it was my mistake, not put the dovetail in the saddle properly. But on closer inspection, the rubbish dovetail didn't sit in the saddle. Instead it was held by the pressure of the thumb screws. Was very upset.

[dogfish]

I dropped a CG5 mount head once. Cracked the plastic casing and knocked the cogs out of alignment. Managed to fix it though with a replacement casing and undoing and retightening the gears - phew.

Martin

[Helen]

My Megrez 90 rolled off a chair landing on the microfocuser, it saved the lens, but 'buttery smooth' no longer applies to the focuser (gritty is rather more apt!). Replacement focuser on its way....

Helen

[Shibby]

I had a makeshift cap on the DSLR, made from a compass no less. But being makeshift, it wasn't very secure. So when I forgot about it and went to attach it to my scope, the compass fell inside the OTA and landed on the primary mirror with a hell of a clatter, taking a chip out of it

But I'd like to thank SGL for this thread for making me feel a bit better

[Beulah]

This is a painful thread to read........

[Luke]

Ouch, this thread is a very scary read for me in particular. Both the missus and I are clumsy, I don't think the missus will mind me saying it.

Bearing in mind that I once accidentally hit my wife's car with an axe (easily done, eh, I'm sure most of you have all done this at some point...) - even though seconds before the missus had shouted "Mind my car!!!" - the gear is living on borrowed time!

[kris h]

I dropped my one and only diagonal the other night it came with the

scope one of them cheap ones and its definitely broke had a look on flo

and am gonna get a celestron 90 degree erecting prism for £36

[bish]

Not astronomy related but I managed to drop my camera flash 3 times in a row before breaking it. I had kept it in perfect condition for 3 years and then dropped 3 times in the space of about 30 minutes.

[Hypernova]

I managed to let my Speers-Waler roll of the table that it was on while observing a few months ago, luckily the eyepiece sustained no damage and the views seem to be as good as ever which was a relief. Maybe the big rubber grip on the side of it help null the force of the impact?

[solo]

Hi all,

A pigeon got into my garage and knocked my 4" helios off its shelf 5feet to the concrete floor. Smashed the finder and its mount and bent the focusser shaft plus a misshapen dew shield. Also a few scuffs and scratches. I haven't had a look through it yet but I'm not very hopeful. I've told the wife it's probably a write off and I'll probably have to replace it with a 127 mak!

Cheers, John.

[LukeSkywatcher]

A few months back i dropped my favourite EP. It was only a 32mm Celestron from the EP kit i bought but i LOVED that EP. It has a lovely big crack all the way across the lens.

The silver lining of this story is that i then bought a 30mm Vixen NPL EP from a fellow SGL member to replace the broken EP and the Vixen EP is a hundred times better then the Celestron.

But i was still sad to see my 32mm die.

[Peter Drew]

I once had a big "nearly", I set off to deliver a 14" Newt on my roofrack, at the first corner I heard a loud banging, on inspection I found that I hadn't tied it on yet!.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I once had a big "nearly", I set off to deliver a 14" Newt on my roofrack, at the first corner I heard a loud banging, on inspection I found that I hadn't tied it on yet!.

That could have been such a disaster. Imagine a 14" Newt flying off of a roof-rack onto the road.

I'd pull over an cry.

I'm thinking you would not have made the sale.

[umadog]

I dropped a secondary onto a nice 8.75" 1/8 wave David Hinds Pyrex primary. As you can imagine, I felt sick afterwards. Luckily it only took a very small chunk out of the primary and merely chipped the tip of the secondary. I painted over the damaged region of the primary with a black marker. At the eyepiece you can't tell that it happened: the damage occupies a much smaller area then the region covered by the secondary. Still a pity.

[hickeydp]

After a long drive home from a dark site I was tired and not thinking. It never crossed my mind that things would have shifted around in my boot. Opened the door and crash, my C6 hit the drive and shattered the corrector. Thing is still in my attic no use to anyone.

[Freff]

Had a **** in the woods once, slipped a fell back into it.

[kris h]

Had a **** in the woods once, slipped a fell back into it.

[Peter Drew]

I bet the bears laughed! :):).

[Helen]

This Mike's example from his recent Antarctic trip...

We had just arrived at the edge of the sea ice off Snow Hill Island, in the Antarctic Weddell Sea, and from the upper bridge of our icebreaker we spotted our first group of Emperor

Penguins, clustered by the edge of the water but with none of them wanting to be the first to go in. I joined the phalanx of photographers who started snapping away, including this

Taiwanese guy who had 'money no object' top of the range Canon SLR gear.

Minutes later, I heard a strangled howl of anguish, followed by a loud splash! He had decided to change his 500mm 'baby' zoom for his 800mm giant, and for some bizarre reason he

had decided to balance the 500 on the ship's rail whilst doing so!!! One slip, and just moments later the 500mm was lying in a 2 foot deep pool of sea water beside the ship, with the

salt gently toasting its electronics.

A russian crew member quickly retrieved what was by now just a large white paperweight before the water froze over, but this was a c£5,500 case of butter fingers...! OUCH