What can go wrong.........WILL go wrong....

[Tim]

Last night was great, no doubt about it, first really clear moonless night in ages, and along with my regular imaging setup, I got my star party kit out for a bit of visual. I was photographing M1, and actually saw it visually for the first time too, but along with the anticipation and the reality seemed to come a fair number of DOH! moments as well.

Recognise any of these?

DOH! Left the key to my obsy in my pocket. In my coat. At work. Eventually found a spare, wasting dark sky time meanwhile.

DOH! Neighbours security light came on, I glanced over the fence, trod on a rake and WHACK! in the chest.

DOH! Got my spare setup very nicely polar aligned in readiness for Saturn, then noticed there was a large bush in the way.

DOH! turned a flashlight on the large bush and started to prune it drastically. In the semi gloom one of the branches poked me in the eye.

DOH! After a bit of visual on Saturn I set up my camcorder to get an image to show the Mrs. Realised I had also left my glasses at work, and could barely focus the screen.

DOH! Finally locked up my obsy at around 4am, turned off the lights, PC etc and went inside. It was then I noticed that I hadn't closed the roof

DOH! Went back outside to close roof, did a little sidestep to avoid the other setup and slid ballerina style over an icy patch.

DOH! To top it all off, in the morning I discovered I hadn't tightened the allen bolts when collimating my main imaging scope. The run had a flip in it so I expect the pics are affected, haven't been able to bring myself to look as yet

I think it is just lack of dark sky time, but a lot of the errors were those I used to make when starting out. Either that or I am going doolalley!

What muck-ups do you guys make on a regular basis?

Cheers

Tim

[Altair40]

My only oops so far is treading in little 'presents' the dog has left me.

Eeww!

[JCJC]

Hi Tim, the obvious one is forgetting to take the focus mask off...

Yesterday I was ready to do another drift align before I realised the apparently trailing stars were due to the bahtinov mask still on the front.

Jordan

[Beyond_Vision]

Wasted last night and tonight with new kit syndrome and only just finished up just now with a single 10 minutes sub which finally showed no trailing. Ho hum at least next time it should be ready to rock and roll.

Sounds like you had one heck of a night Tim that should be more than your fair share for a year

Weather forcast for the week looks dire oh for a few crisp winter night

Regards

Kevin

[stolenfeather]

My only oops so far is treading in little 'presents' the dog has left me.

Eeww!

Been there,.. done that! I'm sure it is all part of my canine's master plan to keep the backyard to himself!

Isabelle

[martin_h]

I keep forgetting to change file names...every sub tonight is NGC891_15mins.....

I'm imaging M57 tho ...hohum

[Nexus 6]

Unlucky Tim, typical that when its a decent night that happens!

Bet your glad you did'nt do the lottery in case you lost the winning ticket

Alan

[jgs001]

That sounds like quite a painful night Tim, literally... I was lucky the past couple of nights and didn't have any major setbacks... Phew.. I do keep thinking I really ought to right up a checklist and laminate it though...