I have found an approach that I find very helpful. Sometimes if I am debugging an aspect of my gear that I am finding to be frustrating and I am not winning and progessing and other things are starting to go wrong. I find it better to withdraw from it and have a cup of tea or leave it until the next day.
Usually I have bright idea about how to handle it better during that period or I simply start fresh and I make progress whereas I was hitting a wall the night before or things were getting worse (dropping little scews or dropping the allen keys way too much whilst holding a CCD camera in the air with a ton of cables hanging off of it).
An example. The other night I was getting frustrated trying to square up my Trius camera on the Honders. Man it was elusive. Home made packers were not all the same which was making it a lot worse.
I got it to a point that seemed ok. Took a flat and there is a huge dust donut. So I need to clean the CCD window. I take off the camera and clean it. Big dust donut still there. OK maybe its on the filter. I loosen the filter retaining washer which has a tiny black screw (this is at night). Oh, the dust is on the other side of the filter. I have to remove it. The scope is pointing so the filter wants to fall out. Dangerous ground here. I loosen the tiny black screw ready to catch it with my hand whislt being careful the $300 filter does not fall to the ground. The tiny screw bounces off my hand and lands on the floor somewhere. Oh great.
I spent 15 minutes with a torch searching for that little screw. I have pavers surrounding the pier slab with gaps, there is a timber lining at the edge of the slab with a lsight gap, cables and transformers are on the floor and I cover these with foam tiles for walking and protection for gear if it ever fell. No luck.
Next morning in daytime I look. I lift up another foam tile further away, bang there is the tiny screw. Time spent - 15 seconds.
I would have had a hard time finding a match to replace that screw as its imperial being a US product and it could've made my filter wheel inoperative until I found one.
This leave it when getting frustrated and coming back fresh approach has helped a lot of times so I thought I would pass it on as sometimes this hobby is very frustrating debugging gear that won't work.
Sleep on it. It is always clearer in the morning. Took me years to fix my C11. You're always learning something new. Plenty of time to fix stuff. The stars don't move that fast.
Guys I feel your pain and have the same frustrations. Right now setting up my RC08 is driving me nuts. One problem turns into three interelated ones and only going back to the beginning can resolve any of them - argh! My son takes the view that astro problem solving is keeping my brain working at my old age, so maybe it has some benefit.
Marc, years to fix the C11, what perseverence! I am only a month into the RC and its a test. Your an inspiration, or incredibly subborn.
haha stamp collecting sounds safer. or pretending you captured hubble data and edit the heritage data.
I'm glad its not just me.
I had countless of those moments Greg and was nearly defeated a couple of times.
that's why it is nice to comment on people's photos posted, as we are in the hobby we know how frustrating it can be - getting even a modest image finished is pretty much a miracle when you consider the issues people go through getting there!
Marc, years to fix the C11, what perseverence! I am only a month into the RC and its a test. Your an inspiration, or incredibly subborn.
It was on and off. Lost interest a couple of times but eventually went back to it when I felt like it. It's all part of the fun tinkering with things. For the stubborn part better ask my wife
Had the "Tak adapter seizure" on the first light of my (now gone) FSQ-85. Wouldn't come to focus with the extension I had, so went to unscrew it from the CAA.
Nope.
Twisted and contorted and wrenched my hands.
Nope.
Went in a rush to Bunnings JUST before they closed and got another small rubber strapwrench.
NOPE.
leave it till morning.
Woke up, grabbed it, and instantly it twisted off.
Insert Tasmanian Devil whirl and words here.
Lesson learned - ALWAYS grease Tak threads. ALWAYS.
Last edited by RB; 21-08-2015 at 12:06 PM.
Reason: Profanity removed, filter bypass
I have found an approach that I find very helpful. Sometimes if I am debugging an aspect of my gear that I am finding to be frustrating and I am not winning and progessing and other things are starting to go wrong. I find it better to withdraw from it and have a cup of tea or leave it until the next day.
Usually I have bright idea about how to handle it better during that period or I simply start fresh and I make progress whereas I was hitting a wall the night before or things were getting worse (dropping little scews or dropping the allen keys way too much whilst holding a CCD camera in the air with a ton of cables hanging off of it).
An example. The other night I was getting frustrated trying to square up my Trius camera on the Honders. Man it was elusive. Home made packers were not all the same which was making it a lot worse.
I got it to a point that seemed ok. Took a flat and there is a huge dust donut. So I need to clean the CCD window. I take off the camera and clean it. Big dust donut still there. OK maybe its on the filter. I loosen the filter retaining washer which has a tiny black screw (this is at night). Oh, the dust is on the other side of the filter. I have to remove it. The scope is pointing so the filter wants to fall out. Dangerous ground here. I loosen the tiny black screw ready to catch it with my hand whislt being careful the $300 filter does not fall to the ground. The tiny screw bounces off my hand and lands on the floor somewhere. Oh great.
I spent 15 minutes with a torch searching for that little screw. I have pavers surrounding the pier slab with gaps, there is a timber lining at the edge of the slab with a lsight gap, cables and transformers are on the floor and I cover these with foam tiles for walking and protection for gear if it ever fell. No luck.
Next morning in daytime I look. I lift up another foam tile further away, bang there is the tiny screw. Time spent - 15 seconds.
I would have had a hard time finding a match to replace that screw as its imperial being a US product and it could've made my filter wheel inoperative until I found one.
This leave it when getting frustrated and coming back fresh approach has helped a lot of times so I thought I would pass it on as sometimes this hobby is very frustrating debugging gear that won't work.
I think the go away and think approach has pretty good merit. It is like the best advice for recovering a bogged 4WD. "Have a cuppa first" Lets you think a bit rather than barging in and making things worse.
But then on the other hand, a couple of months ago I set up and found no power! Turned out that the tiny little lockring on the cigarette lighter adapter for the mount had come undone allowing the positive contact, lockring, fuse and tension spring to ping away into the grass somewhere on my 100M walk from the garage to the observing spot. A couple of minutes backtracking (In the dark) and there they all were!
...I feel better already 
