I hope I've not damaged my HEQ5 mount!!!

[Andrew INT]

Since Friday night was pretty clear, I decided to set up the telescope and leave it to do some imaging of M81 and M82.

The plan was to bottle feed baby (giving wife a bit of a break) at 10pm, go to bed for a little while and get up for the next feed at 2am. The idea was that I'd then have four hours worth of wonderful images...

The reality was that I slept through until 3am (when baby wanted feeding), only to find that the telescope had been hitting a tripod leg for about two hours.

I think it is still all working okay. Has anyone done this to their mounts before...and did it damage anything?

[jarbi]

Hi Andrew,

I did this as well last september during a photosession, but it was not causing any damage apparently. It sounds horrible though .

cheers,

Janos

[NGC 1502]

I think it is still all working okay

Sounds like you got away with it.

By the way, astronomy doesn't count if you are indoors asleep

instead of out there getting cold

Regards, Ed.

[martin_h]

My filter wheel spends quite a lot of time rammed up against the pier top.

[Andrew INT]

Thanks all - its good to know that I'm not the only idiot )

Hey Ed - I agree. However, until baby can go through a full night without feeding I have to make do.

We had a saying in the army - "pain is nature's way of telling you that you’re still alive."

Maybe dark adapted vision and frozen fingers is nature’s way of telling you you're an astronomer!

[svetimas]

By the way, astronomy doesn't count if you are indoors asleep

instead of out there getting cold

Regards, Ed.

Good point!