An AP Mach 1, an agile observatory and a Jeep

[DJT]

This is a thread in praise of Astro-Physics buts it’s not the usual gush.

It started with a Tesla..

[DJT]

5 days before picking up a new Tesla, the Jeep, which is the Trade in Car, flagged an engine warning light. Am on Engine number 3 so was a tad nervous.

At the same time, I had an oil change warning light to. Figured if I change the oil, problem solved…erm

Car parked in neutral, hand brake on, engine on warming up the oil so it drains easier and I sidle off to the iPad to watch the video on how to change an oil filter..

As I stand on the deck, out of the corner of my eye I see the Jeep, gently rolling downhill towards the less than Agile observatory deck..it’s a steep hill.

Dropping the ipad I start to leg it towards the jeep in the hope I can leap in and stop it..

[DJT]

Not a hope..

The Jeep, in a very leisurely manner, mounts the deck on which at some point the observatory will go up, pushes the pier which is embedded in about a ton of concrete over and parks on top of it..

Well, to be more precise, it parks on top of my AP Mach 1….

The saving grace is that there was no telescope on it at the time..and given I have been using the AP 130…

Eventually I extracted the mount from underneath the Jeep then managed to get the car back up the hill to finish the oil change, in a flat surface..with the handbrake fully on, like at 90 degrees..

In the photos, this is what a deck looks like when a Jeep lands on it and pushes it 1 meter down a hill…

And this is what a mounting plate that was attached to the mount looks like when it’s wedged under a jeep

And the last photo shows the ra sheered off from the main part of the mount

[DJT]

And this was what’s left of the deck..I had pushed the pier back to near vertical..

The obvious photos should have been that with the jeep sprawled across the deck but that was a selfie too far so no photo exists

There was another plus side…..had the deck, the pier and mount not been there, the jeep would have picked up speed and landed in the forest which includes quite a steep drop…

[DJT]

The deck has been repaired and tonight I have everything Polar aligned and the scope is up and running again after a few months off.

In stripping down and repairing the mount I took the opportunity to remesh the gears and also redo PEM given the rough ride it’s had.

Am a tad surprised that the mount isn’t trashed. I had a few emails with George at AP, solved a couple of niggling issues and it’s happily doing everything it should be doing despite its adventure.

Sigh of relief. God bless AP.

Oh, by the way, 4 days after picking up the Tesla, we were rear-ended but it’s now out of the repair shop as good as new….gaah.

Clear skies…

[croweater]

Glad to see you're back on track David. In retrospect you should have let the jeep roll off a cliff after the first engine and all the later problems could have been avoided.
Cheers, Richard

[RobF]

Oh no! Think I would have had multiple heart atttacks in their somewhere. Amazing you have everything back in action. Sorry to hear about the rear-ending :(

[strongmanmike]

Holy crap David :eyepop: So glad to hear after such heart stopping
events, you are up and running again :thumbsup: ...knew there was a good reason I dont do my own oil changes :question: :lol:

Mike

[xelasnave]

Sorry to hear of your drama but surprised that you did still not learn not to trust a hand brake and stick a brick under your wheels...

alex

[DJT]

Cough. I thought about that fleetingly as I ran down the hill. It’s interesting in that I always park in 1st gear but of course can’t do that if you want to leave the engine running and just didn’t think.

David

[DJT]

Never doing an oil change again.(except for the ride on).

Good to be up and running as you say. Really knocked the wind out of me for a while and lost the Astro mojo.

All good now. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Quite the story David. Luckily it has a good ending.

Greg.

[alan meehan]

got to agree with Alex ALWAYS put a brick under the front wheel ,glad noone was hurt or the the jeep didnt leap into the bush