This is what happens if you leave your gear out for 2 months unused...

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Barring a quick check to get my new focuser / OAG in sync, I don't think I've managed to use my gear since November. Terrible weather and the few breaks coinciding with me being away or otherwise busy.

Anyway, I've decided to build a pier (and probably eventually an obs, but the pier is the important part for now) and I needed to get a measurement from the NEQ6, so off to the back paddock I went, where my mount and RC8 had been sitting, rugged up in Telegizmos since they were last used.

Pro tip: if you're going to do that, at least plug the focuser when you leave it.

[redbeard (Damien)]

Wow, that's looks amazing!

If you blow air into the eyepiece holder, do your hear a sound coming out. The 'growth' looks like some sort of musical instrument.

Is that easy to clean and is that a nest or something else?

Cheers,

Damien

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Mud Wasp nest?

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Meth lab!!! call the police

[LewisM]

Mud wasp or Hornet.

I leave mounts out occasionally - 1 waterproof sleeping bag, 3 tarps - each bungy / okie strapped tightly around the mount so nothing bigger than an ant can crawl in (I use lithium grease on any crawly ingress points - they get stuck IF they try). Top that off with a LARGE plastic bucket from Bunnings over the entire head, also bungied down.

Stayed out in hail and driving rain - nada. Checked on hot days - cool. I would spray it down with lithium grease on the tripod legs, WD40 and Ballistol elsewhere once a week.

I would NEVER leave a scope out. EVER.

I once cleaned a Tak FSQ-106N of a friend here who shall remain nameless He always left it out too. Spiders under the focuser cover, small snail shells here and there. Seized rusty screws, cap bolts and grub screws and a pitted chrome pinion. Sorry Mr. XYZ but you can clean and deoxidise your Losmandy G11 yourself... all those rusty screws and aluminium anodising turning bad...

Check the rest of your optics...

[traveller (Bo)]

NGC 2015 the hornet nest nebula....

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Originally Posted by redbeard

Wow, that's looks amazing!

If you blow air into the eyepiece holder, do your hear a sound coming out. The 'growth' looks like some sort of musical instrument.

Is that easy to clean and is that a nest or something else?

Cheers,

Damien

haha, it might have made an interesting sound but I didn't try blowing into it. A number of grubs did fall out of it though. It's some kind of wasp nest.

One of the last times I was up a wasp stung me on the hand... probably the same thing.

Originally Posted by LewisM

Mud wasp or Hornet.

I leave mounts out occasionally - 1 waterproof sleeping bag, 3 tarps - each bungy / okie strapped tightly around the mount so nothing bigger than an ant can crawl in (I use lithium grease on any crawly ingress points - they get stuck IF they try). Top that off with a LARGE plastic bucket from Bunnings over the entire head, also bungied down.

Stayed out in hail and driving rain - nada. Checked on hot days - cool. I would spray it down with lithium grease on the tripod legs, WD40 and Ballistol elsewhere once a week.

I would NEVER leave a scope out. EVER.

I once cleaned a Tak FSQ-106N of a friend here who shall remain nameless He always left it out too. Spiders under the focuser cover, small snail shells here and there. Seized rusty screws, cap bolts and grub screws and a pitted chrome pinion. Sorry Mr. XYZ but you can clean and deoxidise your Losmandy G11 yourself... all those rusty screws and aluminium anodising turning bad...

Check the rest of your optics...

All looks pretty good after cleaning out the nest. It's an RC8 so there's no glass, just mirrors. I left my ED80 out for extended periods of time and I've never had a problem, but I'm not going to be leaving things out anymore until they're better protected.

I'm a lazy bugger and it's about 300m walk up to the paddock where I keep do my imaging and I already have to carry a bunch of stuff, so I figured I'd leave my scope up under the Telegizmo. Never really thought too much about insects and I was happy with the weather-proofing the covers provide. Ah well, I'll not make the same mistake twice so let's put it down to experience ;-)