Your biggest DoH!!?? moment- You know you've had one.

[Lumen Miner]

I am sure this has been done before, but i'm going to do it again.

I and i'm sure others, are interested in you biggest, "I'm a complete idiot" moment.

We all have them from time to time. It makes us human, we make mistakes, but we learn from them (generally), that is what makes us a superior species.

So in the interest of succeeding and being proficient at our hobby, it serves us well, to share our experiences and encourage others to take the plunge also. It also gives us grace, to forgive ourselves, for those moments when the true meaning of "stoopidity" raises its ugly head...

[Lumen Miner]

I'll kick things off.....


Took the new refractor out to view the moon. It would appear I was spending too much time, thinking about the tripod setup.

I aimed in the general vacinity of the moon and tried moving the scope to find it...
I had found it easily the night before...

I tried going up, I tried going down, I tried left then right. I even tried diagonals. Then all at once...!!!


After 3omins I had given up.... Totally furious with myself, that I couldn't find a giant ball of light...

Swearing a tad under my breath, I packed up my gear (with a fair bit of force) and tracked it all back inside.... The swearing consisted of something along the lines of, "If it is this hard, I'm not going to ^%$# try again".


After returning inside, and throwing everything in a corner, I went to look for my scopes lens cap to return it too it...

After 15 mins of looking for the cap, I realised it was on the scope.

You would have thought, I would have noticed there were no stars out... ROFLOL

Needless to say, I haven't made that mistake again... ;)

[DavidU]

Doing the support for Motorhead in Melbourne years ago, it came to my big guitar solo part, stepped on my guitar cable and unplugged it(stood on it) infont of thousands of people:lol:
My life is one big doh moment

[multiweb]

Here's a couple of beauties I did:

1_ inverting RA & DEC cables on the G11. Kept me busy for most of the night :screwy:

2_ imaging 20min subs in Ha through my hartman mask. :doh:

3_ helping a mate setting up his dobs and having the base plate facing south instead of North. The ARGO NAVIS had a real hard time that night. :whistle:

[leon]

Mitchell, I did exactly what you did, and for the life of me couldn't work out why I could not focus on anything, until i packed up and found the EP cap still on the Ep which was inserted in the focuser:doh: :doh:

Talk about dopy :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
My big DOH moment was when i found this site :lol:
Now i want everything that i cant have :doh:well not just yet anyway :lol:

well if i sell the house maybe hahahaha :P

[Lumen Miner]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Oh!!!!! My mouth hurts! My side too!!!

[Baron von Richthofen]

marring my first:wink2: wife:wink2:

[Lumen Miner]

Shouldn't there be like, a Jen's wish Donation fund or sumfin'? :lol:

[DavidU]

I'll second that feeling !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lumen Miner]

You guys are getting me nervous, should I bypass the first wife completely??? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[DavidU]

Nah, don't worry, the 3rd and 4th get a bit better:lol:

[DavidU]

I hope she doesn't read this LOL

[Lumen Miner]

LoL!! In the interest of your own health, perhaps you should edit that out... :rofl:

[Kevnool]

Try taking out your 16" set up then realise youve left the step ladder home.
That takes the fun out of it.
Cheers Kev.

[mithrandir]

Traded the wife. Kept the kids.

[DavidU]

Yeh nice ! went to a wife swapping night once, I got a mower ! Good deal:lol:
joke of course

[Lumen Miner]

You could just climb up the side, of a 16" couldn't you!!?? :rofl:

[Lumen Miner]

Oh that is tops!!!

Here's one, was just reading this thread for new responces and noticed someone had a real similar setup to mine.
That's great because I was about to email them and ask for some info on it.

Turns out it was a real similar setup, almost exact you could say...

Canon 350d... Tamron AF 17-50mm
Zodiac 7x50 Binoculars

I even went, "Woah, they have Zodiac bino's too".

Such an idiot... :lol:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

[AlexN]

1 - driving 300km to a dark site to find I've left my 12v power box at home.
2 - Forgetting to plug the guide lead into the mount, and fighting with PHD for over an hour because it fails to calibrate..
3 - Not refocusing frequently enough and losing 2.5hrs data because of it (happens frequently..)

[lacad01]

Setting up in the dark, aligned to an object ok, appeared in finder ok, looked through eye piece - nothing, black. I thought, "Don't tell me I've dewed up so quickly already"....scratching my head, maybe I haven't moved the focusser out far enough...still nothin...
<<Doh!>>, I hadn't taken the main dust cover off the front of the scope :P

[Darth Wader]

Set up the scope one afternoon & aligned the finder almost perfectly. Not long after darkness fell I bumped the finder WAY out of alignment. Needless to say it was quite difficult trying to find anything properly so I got really angry and packed up after about an hour. Good viewing conditions otherwise so I was particularly annoyed.

Cheers
Wade

[Lumen Miner]

Thanks people, in admitting our own short comings, we encourage others whom have yet to experience, such abnormalities in the time continum of the universe. Moments of total confusion.

[AlexN]

Oh, taking 15x5minute dark frames then remembering that I had shot 10 minute exposures... That was a D'Oh! moment too...

[Screwdriverone]

I've posted this here before;

I packed up the car with the 5 inch scope, the tripod, power cables, food, gear etc and drove 65km to Linden on a REALLY clear night. I got there, opened up the car, unpacked the scope, set it up, aligned it and then realised that I had left my box with all my eyepieces in the garage at home. :doh:

I thought..."why dont I just use the binos", nope, they were in the box too. Then I thought...."I know, the webcam connected to the PC", nope, in the box too! :doh: :doh:
So, instead of packing up and heading an hour home with my tail between my legs, I realised that I had a 6 x 30 finder on the reflector, so I spent the next 90 mins looking at the Milky Way like a sad astronomical pirate. Yeaaarggghhhh!

Still, I had a lot of fun anyway.

I now keep a basic 15mm eyepiece in a bolt case in the car just in case I have another Homer moment.

Cheers

Chris

[Waxing_Gibbous]

I had a flat spare tyre. I drove into the repair place. "We're pretty busy. About five hours" they said. I fretted and fussed about how I was going to go about my busy day without the car. "Mate" the guy said, "You only have to leave the tyre!"
Seven years of Uni down the drain!!!:P

[Screwdriverone]

HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Classic Peter! I bet you felt like a right fool.

Not blonde are you?

Cheers

Chris

[Calibos]

Dob on EQ platform. Webcam in Dob. Webcam connected to laptop mounted on laptop stand attached to my EP case table. EP case table has wheels. Decide to move EP table a foot or two. Forget webcam cable is wrapped behind lid of EP case. Move table. Webcam cable pulls against EP case lid. EP case with about 1200 euros of EP's and accessories gets pulled off table and empties onto ground. Nearly pulls of 800 euro Laptop.Webcam cable and webcam very strong, nearly pulls 12" Dob off EQ platform which probably would have destroyed 1400 euro Dob and crushed the motors and electronics of a 700 euro EQ PLatform.

Very nearly destroyed the entirety of my Astro equipment and thousands of euros worth in one go.

Luckily the scope and EQ platform didn't take a tumble and the contents of the EP case although emptied on the grass suffered no ill effects.

Beat that!! :D

[Lumen Miner]

Oh!!!! That is EPiC!!!! :eyepop: :eyepop: :eyepop:


Almost lost the lot.....!
I can picture it all going, like dominoes....

[Calibos]

LOL, those smilies are very accurate depictions of the faces of my observing buddies when this was happening :D

[ngcles]

Hi All,

I'll add mine to the list though they are not too dissimilar to some above and they just go to show that no matter how experienced you are or how much you seem to know about telescopes etc, blunders of a mind-boggling magnitude are still possible, nay inevitable at least sometimes.

Strangely enough, they almost always seem to happen to me when I'm at some sort of gathering where the public are standing around you and watching the "expert" at work ... which only makes things much worse.

First one was at a Sutherland Astronomical Society Open night about ten years ago. Having assembled my nearly new 31cm Newtonian 'scope for public viewing, the images it gave were horrendous. A queue of about five watched my every move to diagnose the problem.

I changed eyepieces, looked though other 'scopes to check seeing and generally did everything to try to find out what was wrong until I took the eyepiece out of the focuser and shone a light down the barrel to find -- the plastic re-sealable bag I kept over the secondary mirror to protect it while being transported was still over the secondary mirror. Once removed the 'scope gave perfect images.

Second one was similar but even more stupid. I was at a huge public open night at Sydney Observatory about 3 years ago. After a request I took the Argus Panoptes (46cm -- see sig block) for the public to view Saturn which was near opposition.

A small crowd and some staff watched the twenty-odd minutes as I assembled, tweaked, collimated etc etc. With everything in apparent readiness I inserted the 9mm T1 Nagler (a 1 1/4" eyepiece with a 2" skirt) into the focuser and there was Saturn, somewhat fainter than normal, slightly yellowish and pretty fuzzy -- a horrible image. So away I went checking and re-checking everything in sight for nearly a half hour. Collimating, re-collimating, checking the secondary, the this, the that ... nothing seemed to work

And ... yeeesss, I did check to see if the plastic bag was over the secondary mirror -- no, after the experience above I'd moved to an opaque white draw-string cotton bag so that wasn't the problem. At the point of despair I finally pulled the 9mm Nagler out and found ...

... the clear/translucent plastic dust cap over the 1 1/4" field lens at the bottom of the eyepiece was still firmly in place.

:doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

What a dope.

Normal service was resumed in a matter of seconds.


Best,

Les D

[Screwdriverone]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Laughed my head off at those ones Les, especially the secondary mirror one, I keep a leather drawstring bag over mine and wonder sometimes why my laser collimator "disappears" into the tube before I "DOH" myself and take it off the secondary.

Thanks for sharing. Yeaaaarrrrgh!:astron:

Chris

[dpastern]

Does it have to be Astronomy related? Finally realising that the girl @ work that I've been chasing for the past 9 months isn't interested in me, or at least that way. Call me thick, or slow...or both. Women...

Dave

[Lumen Miner]

Chin up! Happens to the best of us!! ;)

[dpastern]

Thanks Mitchell. Chins up, moving on. I like to think of it as she wasn't worthy of me, and not the other way around.

Dave

[kinetic]

It could have been your multiple chins Dave?

[Lumen Miner]

:lol: Sorry, that was so lame, but I just had too. :thumbsup:

[dpastern]

rofl, yes!!!! Being a bigger lad, I do have multiple chins, more to laugh at :)

Dave

[RobF]

I think my best effort would be the Fri evening I spent soldering up my USB/TTL/RJ45 cable to get EQMOD working with my HEQ5Pro mount. Took me a couple of gos to get the wiring right, but it was working great guns in the end.

Next night is Sat night at Astroron's dark sky property 2 hrs drive away. After putting up the tent, etc and setting up the scope, get ready to polar align and find I've blown electronics in the mount the night before - the hand controller didn't work! I think I was almost crying.

Spent 2hrs trying to get EQMOD working without the instructions or any sort of controller (not even a mouse). The only thing I ended up pointing at all night was Saturn for a single 1min AVI file - not usually considered essential viewing at a dark sky site.

Mind you, on the bright side, at least EQMOD works ok whatever it was I did to the mount....sigh

Lesson learned - don't stuff around with gear just before a dark sky trip!...... :P :P :D

[Lumen Miner]

Oh, that's not so funny. Way to make me feel bad..! :(

[dpastern]

Nah don't feel bad, I'm not worried about being a bit chubby. I'm comfortable with my cuddly size. :) No offence was even taken.

Dave

[kinetic]

You feel bad Mitch?...how do ya reckon I feel? :doh:

Sorry Dave!:(

Steve

[Ian Robinson]

I've had so many .... it's hard to choose the "best" one ....

Pranged (wrote off) my first car when I was too busy checking out the girls coming out from Cessnock High when I was about 20 years old , and had gone there to visit a girl I knew and fancied ,I should have been watching the road and the girls , I'd've seen the very sharp lefthand turn on the main drag there .... when the cops showed up , they asked where the corpse was as I'd rolled the car down an embankment and crushed the roof on a fence .... only thing that saved me was quick reflexes ...all I got were :
-- some glass fragments in the right arm
---a broken collar bone
---a sore neck which settled down after a day or two (lucky eh!!!)
---a neg driving ticket and a dressing down by the local fuzz
---and a seriously fractured pride.
I had my nice new Mazda 323 for all of 3 months.... how's that for a BIG DOH!!! Needless to say my mum and dad and the insurer were not impressed.

My most recent DOH was thinking I had a dodgey handpaddle on my old CG5 only to discover after disassembling and checking all the solders and connections and determining that they were OK that it was a flat JumpStarter powerpack which wasn't delivering enough V and I to actually work the PWM in the circuit properlyto give the right dutycycle ....

[dpastern]

Don't feel sorry Steve! I'm pretty thickskinned and appreciate a good laugh, and I have no problems with my being chubby. I'm not insecure like some girls that I know @ work.

Dave

[wavelandscott]

Most recent "DoH" moment was in setting up my brand new (at NEAF this year) APM 130/780 refractor...

Placing it on my mount for the first time, I was so excited and proud...I turned to get the diagonal and looked back to admire my scope and...

I watched it begin to slowly tip toward the gound...

I dove "in slow motion" to catch it all before it hit the ground...(remember I am a "husky lad" too and don't often move with lightening speed)

I made the catch (hurray)...and it dawned on me that I had not tightened any of the mount legs...I felt like such and idiot...but all was well in the end!

[MrB]

:eyepop::eyepop:

Nice save!

[wavelandscott]

Thanks, as you can imagine, it made for an interesting "first light"!

[troypiggo]

As a newbie I'm having heaps of "D'ohs". Not that many of the below I say "a few times"...

- I've left the Bahtinov mask on a few times.
- Another time I wasted an hour of shots because I didn't check focus after a slew to overhead and didn't realise the focuser had slipped just a little. On the small screen preview it looked ok, but zoomed in and the stars were all bloated.
- A few times I haven't been able to figure out why my gamepad and goto isn't working, thinking there's something wrong with the cables etc and then realising it was all still in "park" mode.
- Balanced the gear roughly before I put all the heavy DSLR and guidecams etc on. Forgot to do a rebalance after and couldn't figure out why PHD was working so hard and having problems.
- Similar out of balance consequence is big slews, when take finger off button the mount keeps slewing and camera banged into tripod legs.
- Walk away talking to people leaving camera shooting away. Come back and realise the batteries were flat and hour ago...

... Jeez, there's heaps more.

Non-astro related:

- when I was in high school I studied 5 years of Japanese. Grade 11 (or was it Grade 12?) we went to Japan for 3 week school trip. First time away from home by myself. Go to do clothes washing for first time. Throw all the clothes in the front-loader, along with lots of washing powder, coins in the slot, hit "go", walk away. Come back 15mins later to check and wonder why no water is in there and realised it was a drier, not a washing machine...

Same trip, we had a few hours to ourselves and a couple of us jumped in a cab to take us to a McDonald's for lunch. Took us 5 mins to explain to the cabby (no English) where we wanted to go, for him to understand, and us try to understand his "local" Japanese, then finally he just pointed and there was a big Golden Arches just a couple of hundred metres down the road...

Is there a limit to how many of these I can type? I could go on for hours. Apparently, I'm the real Homer Simpson...

[Alchemy]

Astro related DOHs

Thinking the focus is ok because i didnt want to go get the glasses on to check it properly.... run of images wasted

then getting a focusing mask and doing a run with it left on ( a common one it seems)

setting everything up nicely , the last thing before comencing imaging is to set the frame time, got the 1200 right , just overlooked making it Seconds instead of milliseconds..... lots and lots of unusable frames.

tearing out what little hair is left, trying to find a guide star to guide on, finally giving up and off to another target..... yep cap left on guidescope.

Setting up the framing , getting guiding calibrated etc, afterimaging discovering i must have bumped the scope out of polar alignment somehow prior to imaging... all images useless.

probably others i cant remember, problem is i just know ... one day ... i will do some of them again. DOH !!!!!!

[multiweb]

:lol: That one rang a bell here too. I opened my OAG once to check how it was inside and put the prism back facing the other way (camera side). Never found a guide star again until I re-opened it. :doh:

[dpastern]

Ouch! I'm glad you caught it. I haven't done anything like that yet. Hopefully I never do!

Dave

[Lumen Miner]

I noticed, when I was a young lad (only 26 so I guess, i'm still young), I had a tendency to observe the ladies all to frequently on the road. I made it clear to myself then, that if I was to look, then they better bloody-well be worth crashing my car over. I love my car and have never looked since... :)

[astroron]

Probably not my biggest Doh:doh: Justa few weeks ago I took the 8" of it's pier for the first time ina very long time and went to a Star night at a school in Caloundra, only reallised about a Kilometer away from my destination that I had left the tripod behind:sadeyes:
I live 60kms away so there was no going back:rolleyes:
Luckely there was ample scopes to entertain the children:)

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl::rofl: these are so funny :thumbsup:

[CoolhandJo]

All very funny.

My doh moment was when I first got my LX200 in az (no wedge). I read somehwere that to get good astro shots you should polar align (just got a dsi camera). I cant see the south polar star from my house so my mate and I packed this 10" scope off to a nearby lookout to "polar align it". So we found the star but then realised you need a wedge AND you need to do it everytime you move the scope! To top off the stupidity of this, by lugging the scope around that night I damaged something and it needed expensive repairs the next week!

[Jules76]

Had my first doh moment tonight, although even though I didn't get caught out in the end, it was still pretty funny.

Anyway, went to my partner's parents place for Fathers day and decided to take my scope out for the first time. Figured it would be a good idea since they live in Minden (about a 50km drive West from Brisbane). Turned out I didn't get a chance to take it out, no worries it was a just in case thing.

I get back home, go through the unloading of all my gear from the boot (HEQ5, 8" Reflector, accessories etc), start putting it all away in my room and there staring at me on the table is 2x 5kg counterweights. :doh:

That would of been fun trying to balance my scope! :lol:

[stephenb]

After my brother passed away 5 years ago, I decided on a clean out of my shed, and I threw out my 6" f6 mirror from my first homebuilt scope circa.1986. A bad move but I was in the wrong frame of mind to even contemplate a clean out.

[Lumen Miner]

WoaH!! That comment just sent shivers up my spin. I came very very close, to finding my brother not alive in my shed. I thank the gods everyday, that it was not, as it seemed.

[Peter Ward]

Two...and the sad thing is they are getting more expensive...

1) H-Alpha punters will appreciate this

...took the Etalon off prior to removing the blocking filter....which shattered.
Doh!

2) Plugged an untested guide cable with a hot 12Volt pin into my PME.....fried both PCB's....$A2.5K in about 20 milliseconds.... oh F..K!!

[Lumen Miner]

Oh!!! That stings! Really stings. OW!! :(

[HiddenDragon]

Not really a doh moment as such, just an extremely scary moment.

First time observing and i was setting up my 130mm reflector telescope, loosening the rings that hold the tube in place a little to slide it into a better position. For some reason i had it tilted a little so that the very loose screws holding the rings managed to basically fall off letting the whole telescope tube slide out and head for very hard pavement! :eyepop:

Luckily, i was close by and caught the tube with no damage to the telescope. However i did devleop a bad case of the shakes after that extremely frightening moment. Luckily no one was around to see it :whistle:

[Lumen Miner]

Yeah, I would call that a "DoH!!" moment... That could have ended badly... I am glad you caught it. ;)

[pixelsaurus]

Parked the camera on a tripod, at 1am, to do 4 hr star trails. Tripped the shutter and went inside for a coffee. Woke up and found the sun blazing away, and then found I had left the lens cap on. :D

[Lumen Miner]

I did that but forgot the weather forecast, for the day was not good. I was lucky it did not rain...

[dpastern]

Just to revive this thread, cos I had a BIG doh!!!! moment on the weekend. Went away with Astro_South (Andrew) to Leyburn's dark sky site and guess what this lad did?

I forgot the damn well tripod logs for my EQ6PRO!!!!

All I could do was laugh, it was hell funny. Lucky Andrew had a spare manual CG5 mount, so I got in some viewing on Friday night, although I spent most of my time hovering around Andrew's 12.5" Dob, and Kevin's 16" dob. Let's just say I'm "dobsmacked"!!!

Dave

[Esseth]

Well i bought my first scope on Friday afternoon, and had my first Doh on Friday night... as i was putting it together, well just after i had got it all together.

Realized the middle vertical part of the base was back to front, i noticed it when i got to the instructions to attach the handle and eyepiece holder.

[dpastern]

Well, at least you noticed it and learned. There's always going to be doh moments for each and everyone of us I think ;-)

Dave

[mithrandir]

We just hope the Doh! moments aren't too expensive.

[dpastern]

Oh yeah!

Dave

[Benno85]

Mine happened yesterday afternoon.....

On a totally clear kitchen bench on a nice clean soft cloth was the objective lens from the ST80, enjoying the nice afternoon air after having a bath (HEAPS of grease on it for some reason??)

In walks the father-in-law with a heavy tool box in one hand and mobile phone in the other, not really paying too much attention.....:( I can't even finish the story it's so sad, I think you can all guess as to what happened next....

:sadeyes::sadeyes::sadeyes::sadeyes :

[lacad01]

Oh no :eyepop:Any chance of recovery or too much angst to give the gory details?

[Benno85]

:sadeyes: Two lenses were converted to two half-lenses.....there's even a few fine traces of ground glass on the bench, I can't bring myself to dispose of it fully.

[lacad01]

aarrrrgh...sorry to hear that :(

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop:
:scared::scared: sorry to hear that i feel your pain :confused2:

[DavidU]

Ben, I think that one takes the cake !:scared2:

[Benno85]

I'm still shattered (pun intended) by the experience.

But there is some hope, either Bintel or Tasco will hopefully come to the party and manage to secure a replacement.

:sadeyes:

[vash]

don't think I can top those but I had a good one the other night,

I messed up my hand controller and sent it away and got my self a replacement one sent back, I thought that was good. before I set the scope up I programed in all the details gps and date, remembered to have the month and day around the right way, came to the night setting all up and started drift aligning, thought geez I must be way off here, cranked it around as far as it could go but was still drifting away quick.
Thought for a few minutes, I know tracking speed is incorrect, checked it, was set to sidereal plus PE, thought "gotch ya" problem solved, back to drift allign same thing hhm, I twist the mount around further, nope same thing star drifting away at a rate of knots, borderline on the break out in rage point, stopped myself and thought what could it be, it's almost like it was tracking in the opposite direction, BANG hits me in the face right then, check GPS and change the Pesky little N to a nice little S problem solved,
FUnny part was some how through all my movent of the mount I managed to land it bang on the pole while tracking in the wrong direction.

[GrahamL]

Comet McNaught

Forgot about that gem , been lucky enough to catch it just before sunset a couple of days
The lookout had a few people there this afternoon , when asked I pointed out were the comet would show , and there it was , messing with my camera, and not looking for a spell , a guy says wow that fantastic it looks just like a jet trail heading down to coolangatta airport .

which it was :D

comet showed up 5 minutes later (nowhere near ):zzz2:..where I'd spotted it the first time :)

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol:
:lol::lol::lol:
:lol::lol::lol:

[shane.mcneil]

Making sure my lens cap was on during the dust storm, only to find out later that I didn't have an eyepeice in the focuser. It was completely open.

[dpastern]

doh!!!! no damage I hope?

Dave

[StarGazing]

Stepping on my brothers brand new Nikon binos one night. Cracked the lenses, he was not a happy chappy :P. Not to mention it cost me $$$$ when I could have used the $$$$ for EP instead. :screwy:
Alex.

[MrB]

Ouch... but... who left them where they could be stepped on?

[shane.mcneil]

It seems to be OK Dave. Perhaps the air pressure difference kept the dust out. I just felt like a twit when I realised.

Shane

[seanliddelow]

Leaving my dust cap on in my new Skywatcher 305mm Dobsonian. I took the little 40mm cap off but the rest of the dust cap was on:screwy:......... Instead of observing in a 305mm Dob I was observing with 40mm highly magnified el cheapo dob:scared:..... After 2 months I finally found out what was wrong, just in time for dark skies:lol:

Learn from my stupidity.......

[dpastern]

I know what you mean. I'm a practiced expert at it lol.

Dave

[chrisp9au]

In 64 years there have been a number of Doh! moments, a largish number!

One non-astro moment that gets remembered frequently by so called 'friends', was at a camp site on a prospecting trip years ago.

We always made sure we had a good camp fire going at night, set up with a star post arrangement either side and over the fire for hanging the billy on. First night out the billy was taking forever to boil, so two us hunted around for rocks to bang the star posts down lower, took us for ever!

Eventually we got it done, then one of the wives pipes up, 'why didn't you just get a longer wire to hang the billy on?' :P

Oh well...

Cheers :thumbsup:
Chris

[multiweb]

:lol: Classic ... :thumbsup:

[StarGazing]

Me Simon, stupid me :P:P:P

[Lumen Miner]

Oh that does sting!! Can't even get out of it on the technicality, that it wasn't your fault... Damn... :)

[bartman]

This was my post just over a week ago....

Hi Guys and Girls,
I was just wondering what kind of magnification you get when attaching a dslr (Nikon d90) to a 10" Newtonian.
i have seen pics of say....Jupiter, (with all the bands, red spot and moons) and they are clear as, full screen and all done with the equipment above.
I realize filters have been used....but I cant understand that no Barlow, eyepiece or camera lens has been used....
Or am I mistaken?
How do they/you guys do it?
Bartman

The reply was....
Bart the telescope IS the camera lens. In that case it's a 1500mm telephoto lense (quote from 1ponders)

As soon as 1ponders said that, I went DOooooH of course!

Just didn't think before i spoke:)

Bartman

[Lumen Miner]

Been there, don't worry!!
Took me a whole week to work that one out!
:rofl:

[p3nn]

I've had a few myself ranging from trying to figure out why I wasn't getting an image in the neximage. Had the dustcap on.

My first collimation attempt had me seeing double of everything, i.e. 2 Jupiters and 8 moons in a line. That's when I reread the instruction and realised where I went wrong.

Also posting a Q on an astronomy forum trying to figure out why Venus had 3 moons. Turns out I didn't know the dif between Jupiter and Venus at the time

Just setup for an imaging attempt re Jupiter and as I turned to the laptop to start the capture I tripped over the tripod leg knocking the alignment out

Nothing that bad but still...........

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl:
Jen starts chanting for more DOH'S
:D:D

[dpastern]

doe...dough

You did ask for it Jen :P

Dave

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl: Haha cheeky bugger i was waiting for that :P

[dpastern]

hee hee! I can just see all the other IIS members rolling their eyes at my very bad puns. That means I'm very punny!

Dave

[Octane]

Much like everyone else has mentioned previously...

Wondering why on Earth my DSI wasn't picking up any guide stars when pointing my guidescope to a very busy section of the Milky Way. You guessed it, dust cap!

Also, completely fudging the method of polar alignment. Practise does make perfect, though -- use it or lose it!

Regards,
Humayun

[multiweb]

:lol: More subtle... have you tried reversing the orientation of a pick up prism in an OAG so it faces the camera? Very hard to find a guide star this way too. ;)

[Lumen Miner]

100 posts / 1789 views, didn't think the thread would do this well. :) I take it there is 1689 members, which feel too ashamed to posts their stuff ups. ;)

Keep 'em coming guys and gals!! :thumbsup:

[wasyoungonce]

errrr not Astronomy...but I dropped kicked a newly overhauled Aircraft flight controls amplifier for a Mirage Fighter Aircraft across the room.

I had been working on the Mirage flight controls system in the "Top Shop" (overhaul workshop) for about a 2 years and was quite experienced...enough to clear the backlog of amps (and there were many) that needed fixing (many and varied types).

We had a big inspection tour by Top Airforce Brass and I was placing this AMP I had just fixed into it's protective transit holder when it missed the locating tabs and slipped thru to the floor. I was in front of my SGT and some big brassed Knob at the time.

My 1st instinct was to stick my foot out to stop the fall! Bad move.

All I succeeded in doing was to drop kick it across the room. It bounced before I could get my foot under it! A perfect drop goal for the rugby stalwarts!

Needless to say I was toast at that time!

My only saving grace was that I admitted fault and I was the best they had at the time....shameless plug (which doesn't bode well for the Airforce)!:eyepop:

[CoolhandJo]

Brand new DSI III Pro, taken about 3 images. One night set up to image Dumbbell at f6.3, noticed dust. Decided to clean the chip :P. Didnt relaise that the dust was that awful red dust storm reminant which actually scratched the glass right down the middle! Would of been best not touching it at all and used flats until the dust "dried up" to be blown off!

It now makes a good guide camera! :shrug:

[MrB]

50 odd of those views are mine, I read this thread whenever it pops it's head up again.
At risk of sounding big headed... I'm yet to have a stuff-up, but with all this new gear I have that is yet to be put through it's paces, I'm sure I'll be posting here in the not-too-distant future! ;)

[DavidU]

Excellent stuff ups fellas ! Basically my whole life has been a Doh moment and reading these makes me feel better.
A flying Mirage flight control amplifer is a pearler !:lol:

[wasyoungonce]

Yes...years later though! At the time I was treated like a Leper!

Luckily I was the best Avionics tech in that area so I got off with a "stupid boy scolding"!

Maybe one day ...when I'm brave enough I'll tell the story of how I put a fist size hole in the tail plane of a Winjeel Aircraft and it was all covered up!:eyepop:

[DavidU]

You hurt a classic Winjeel !Now that needs a story told. LOL
BTW I really liked the Mirage aircraft, I think they were excellent.

[Lumen Miner]

Here's a good one.

Was out last night shooting macro bugs. Had a 50mm reveresed lens attached to a 50mm on the camera... Weighs a bit.

I turned around to walk down the stair case, stood on my lighting lead, tripped, went to catch myself but because of my slippery/sweaty hands I dropped the camera.

My baby, hit the concrete steps hard from about 1.6m, then rolled down them.

I am yet to check for damage, didn't split the camera open, but I am pretty sure then lens and camera are screwed......
I'll check them out tonight...

Well my imaging days may be over for a lil' while.....:mad2: :mad2: :mad2: at myself..

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop: ouch that would have hurt, a few nasty words would have been coming out of my mouth at that time :lol:

[dpastern]

Oh Mitchell...this is why I *always* use a neckstrap. Even when attached to the scope...

Dave

[multiweb]

Ouch! I feel your pain. :sadeyes:

[Lumen Miner]

I am kinda a zen type of guy. As soon as it slipped I kissed it goodbye. If it still wroks then that's great.



That is also why you are Jedi master and I am just a padawan. ;) I know I should have had one on. It was just a matter of time before disater. My own stupid fault, I did know better.



It not much of a DSLR but it mine. It was literaaly like watching my child fall down the stairs..



Preliminary inspection reveals, a chuck out of the cameras body (aesthetical) and.... well.... not much else.... 50mm zoom is a bit scratchy.... but otherwise..... I'll check out some images and see.

I think the hand of God might have graced me... It hit really hard... but there does not appear to be much damage... I may be a very lucky boy.

[GrahamL]

When I got my pretoria eypeice sometime back the upper lens group was a little loose and it had let a little dust in, upon dissmantleing and almost dropping the field lens on the tiles I got it back together
but neglected to clean iside the eyepiece barrel.

Skip forward a couple of years and I thought ok I pull it down and clean it again,which all went well though it did take a while , so I go outside look through the eyepiece , and wow thats spotless now , but the view is completely warped , oh crap I've put something back in the wrong way round , pull it down again , flip the upper cemented group and
get it all back together, go outside the views still completely warped .
pull it down again put it back the way I had it to start with, drag out scope, set up , try to focus on tree in distance no go .
Strip again flip that upper lens back and put it back together again.
( note this is not a complicated design only one bit you can get wrong)

stop for lunch :D

back outside put eyepiece back in focuser , *#*!~&*# still won't work!!.. major dummy spit.. calmed down an thought a little.

have you ever really looked through the glass outdoors and noticed that warped view or otherwise before ?... well no

are those trees I'm trying to focus on to close, like I'm sure I've visited this before and had to go out front .. possibly.

Ok back inside put it all back the way I started with , waited for a clear night , works fine :lol::P:D

[tileys]

LOL - enjoyed some of those.

Reading the dryer as washer one reminded me of my student days - first time away from home - going to a launderette with all the coins I'd saved up - putting the coins on top of the machine in readiness - getting the soap powder from a machine - putting it into the dispenser. Then, with the bag of clothes still waiting at my feet I decided to load the coins into the slider and kerchunk pushed it in: Of course the front door of the washer immediately locked and the cycle started - sans clothes.... :(

I watched for a while as the soapy water went this way and that and then went searching for a shop that was open on a sunday that could give me some change for another attempt at washing my clothes ;)

A couple of people came in later and looked quizzically at the machine that was operating but with no clothes in it. I just shrugged...

I also (in the same launderette) had a full load (just about everything I owned) trapped in a washing machine that malfunctioned - took about 4 days to get a repairer to get them out...hmmm...soak cycle ?

In terms of an Astro oops - setup in the back garden all by the light of a mobile phone display ;) - then packed up - did a quick scan around and went inside and to bed (it was late and I was tired). In the morning I couldn't find my laptop and looked out to see it sat on a small plastic chair in the middle of the lawn - covered in a not insubstantial dew - no longer running Stellarium...;)

After drying out for a couple of days I plugged it in again and it performed admirably thereafter (just as well really since it was a work laptop and cost about $2K) :whistle:

[jjjnettie]

Left the counter weight off the scope and the whole thing over balanced, smashing my finder, and then, I forgot to change over from jpeg to raw.
doh

[erick]

And you haven't turned and walked away from the scope......... :help:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: I love this thread :lol:

[entity62]

After some 2 years setting my 10in Newt up for observing i decided to make a pier and set it up in my new newly made Ob's. (Pull sheets of iron off roof type) After placing the mount on pier, i get the Newt, climb onto chair and place it onto mount, with the sudden crashing sound of the mount hitting the concrete floor. After a few minutes of fowl language, i discovered i had not bolted the mount too the pier. Damage = 2 stuffed motors and 2 stuffed encoders, and a rather large bill for repairs..Minister for Finance was not impressed. And NO observing for 3 month while it got fixed..

[jjjnettie]

:eyepop: What a sad and tragic story.
We live and learn.

[sjastro]

Another non astro tale.

Back in my Uni days in first year chemistry I used a pipette to suck out concentrated hydrochloric acid from a reagant bottle. Unfortunately the volume of the acid in the bottle was less than the volume capacity of the pipette. As anyone knows using a pipette as soon as you start sucking in air instead of fluid, the fluid will surge.

As a result I got a mouthful of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Fortunately I didn't swallow it but the inside of my mouth was badly burnt and my teeth were never as white as that.

The worst case scenario it may have qualified me for a Darwin award....

Steven

[DavidU]

:eyepop:

[DavidU]

When I was younger I destroyed my folks garage in one big hydrogen blast.
I had made about 2 cubic meters of hydrogen.:D
I won't explain how due to safety concerns.

[freespace]

Nothing compared to some of the others, but I will share anyway...

Got my EQ5PRO out for first light with a friend. Spent 2 hrs wondering why it kept pointing the wrong way an insisted on guide stars below the horizon.

After we gave up and went come, realised controller was set to 33N not 33S :D

[DavidU]

My 150mm refractor hit's concrete !

[wasyoungonce]

My Dad has a great D'oh moment...long before D'oh was around.

He was employed as a lab junior at ICI many many years ago when doing his Chemical engineering degree (Syd).

Anyway he was told to clean up the lab...so he did so & poured out a yucky looking beaker full of brownish liquid down the sink (as they did in those days...1950's).

Anyway...it turns out it was a "Platinum in suspension" liquid...quite alot I am lead to believe.:eyepop:

He was fired...but laughs about it now days. The supervising chemist should have told him what not to throw!

[UK1]

buying a telescope doh'

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:

[pgc hunter]

holy crap!



Even bigger HOLY CRAP!!!

Well, I got me own story.... I was trying to collimate my M500 Mak at 3am the other day (no success) with the EQ5 setup in alt-az mode. Then suddenly the scope spins 180º in altitude at breakneck speed almost catapulting my 8mm Vixen LWV to the concrete. THe diagnal and EP ended up facing the concrete during this episode, with teh tube assembly upside down, but luckily I had both tightened up as good as I could get it. :eek:

[troypiggo]

I just had a really big D'OH! Literally an hour ago.

Put up a new medicine cabinet in the ensuite. Quite happy with the result...

Until wife went to go to the toilet but couldn't figure out why the sliding door wouldn't close. It's a cavity sliding door and I had screwed through it as well when I hung the cabinet. Gaargh!!!

:mad2: and :doh: and :nerd: all at the same time!

PS - my father is a carpenter. I rang him to tell him about it and I think he is still laughing his ass off!

[DavidU]

:lol:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

[supernova1965]

To many to pick from I don't think there is room here to list them or the time to do so:whistle:

[supernova1965]

I can tell one about someone we know who is really accident prone who borrowed his parents 4WD and Sailing boat all his friends were having bets as to how long it would be before he damaged the boat well Pam said he would not even get into the water. Well on the way to the Ramp he rolled the whole rig wrote the whole lot off. He walked away with out any injury as usual he never hurts himself only people silly enough to get to close. Another one was when he was pro fishing and fell out of his tinny and it started circling so he decided to catch it he got in front of the boat and it hit him and he saw the prop go the full length of his body just missing him.:rofl:

[Wavytone]

He he managed to pass on the "Stupid" gene ?

[influx]

Caught a cable with the tip of my shoe, flinging my laptop off a table onto paving bricks. Didn't pull on any of the cables going to the mount or camera, phew. Landed right on the expresscard serial adaptor, mashed it up good. Absorbed the impact nicely, no damage to the laptop!

The adaptor has an RJ45 socket, spent ages bending the pins back into shape with tweezers and it still works. I take a bit more care organising my cable management now.

[flawedprefect]

I'd recently purchased a 750mm 6" Newtonian on an EQ mount. The mount's gears began to grind soon after setting up. I took the mount back to the store twice - the replacement had the same issue. The third seemed ok. Leaving the store, I got booked for parking in a no standing zone, and when I got home, I noticed the pin which locks the angle was jammed (luckily at the right elevation for Sydney - around 34 degrees). I was so upset about the parking ticket and having to return twice before, I let it slide. Hope to one day be able to fix the pin myself.

Oh I D'oh'd! And often that day.

[multiweb]

Well...just got one now... :P Got of my butt and setup for once. All ready, C11/Hyperstar, guiding waiting for dark so just focusing the QHY8 now... focusing...focusing.... man! I can't be that far out?!... focusing ... focusing ... SCT mirror bottoms out, still not focused? Forgot one spacer (nosepiece) on the camera before the hyperstar :doh:. Of course that means powering off evrything, dewshield off, disconnecting QHY8, drying it, etc... :help:

[richardda1st]

I'v got into a habit of taking my truss tube outside well before I will use it. Instead of taking everything outside, I just rest the truss tube horizontally on an old vinyl 3 seat couch in the back porch. This couch is lined up east/west, not a problem at all till a couple of days ago. The setting sun shone through the trusses side onto the mirror and started melting a small hole in the arm rest of the couch.
Luckily I was near by and smelt the result.:eyepop: :screwy::screwy:
Should have known better.

[DavidU]

Well, good news ! IIS member brought around a 150mm x 1200 Achro this morning. Back in biz.He drove down from NSW with it, awesome.
Big thanks to John Guy, lovely fella and nice to meet him.

[Dennis79]

My biggest doh moment was marvelling at a new nebula I accidentally found one night. I spent a few minutes checking it out then showed it to my friends. Then I noticed it followed me as I moved the scope around.

I looked into the tube... It wasn't a nebula, it was a hair on the mirror!

[Octane]

Hahaha, that is gold!

H

[Jen]

Well on the weekend i managed to polar align my scope for the first time :thumbsup::thumbsup:

But it took me neally 4 hours to get it right :lol::lol::lol: :rolleyes: (yep im a persistant little bugger it wasnt going to beat me)

Anyway after neally four hours of continuously watching the star dift to the South even when i turned the scope totally the other way :lol:

Ron says to me Jen have you connected it up to the RA
I was like yeah i can hear it clicking etc..... then i locked at where the screw needs to be tightend and sure enough Jen didnt tighten it at all DOH!!!!!!!!!!!! and a few words did come out of my mouth :screwy::lol:

Anyway once i tightened up the screw BAM!!! i had it polar aligned in 5 minutes :lol: yeehhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa :D
Jen takes note next time to tighten up that little bugger (i wont do that again) :lol:

[Stuart78]

Well my bigges Doh moment was driving 6hrs to Mallacoota with my new boat in tow and stoping at a servo tired and weary, i topped boat up with $40 of fuel, while i was chatting to servo attendant i realised i was filling up the hull with petrol and not the tank:screwy: as the rod holder sits right next to the petrol tank inlet i had the hose poked in the rod holder, after swearing for about five minutes i spent the next 30 mins draining fresh petrol out of the bungs in the back, man i felt like a total knob, and the boat stunk high of petrol for the whole week...:lol:




Stu>>

[troypiggo]

Stuart - that's a classic! Ha!

[multiweb]

:lol: I had a similar experience with a dark edge growing from one side of the field in my subs first time I used a wide field Pentax lens on my QHY8. At first I didn't worry too much because I thought I was tracking closer to my house roof and that was the gutter as the field was very wide but after a little while the shadow developed some interesting branches looking patterns. My sensor was icing up.

[el_draco]

Hehehe! So I am not the only one.....:lol:

[el_draco]

Top this.... I had just finished my final Uni exam after 4 years of horror, came home and fell on my face for 20 hours sleep. Got up noon the next day, staggered into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and decided to brush my teeth.

After 10 minutes :eyepop:of wondering why the friggin toothpaste was not frothing up, I glanced at the tube in my other hand and realised it was Deep Heat..... vomited, mouth wash, toothpaste on a new brush for 20 minutes.... 20 more hours sleep with the sound of the ex laughing her proverbial off haunting me :sadeyes:

[Liz]

:lol::lol: i didnt think I did any DOH things, but my family would disagree, but I did do same thing as Rom, when overseas last year. Brushing my teeth and wondering why the yuk taste/not frothing up - easy to do, really!!
Took this pic in Florence after I did the deed.

Havent read too much of this thread, but the last few have been very funny so may have to have a peek.

Love the petrol one Stuart, and hair on the mirror Dennis. :lol::lol:

[supernova1965]

Was looking up my details to check if I could get a better price on my CTP insurance and had my Drivers License out and saw that it had expired on my birthday Nov 21 I had been driving for 2 months with no license:doh::whistle:

[cybereye]

This turned out to be an expensive D'oh moment....

I'd just bought a 2x barlow and was using it with a 10mm eyepiece with my 8" dob. This was giving me a magnification of 240x and I was using it to look at the Moon, etc. Everything was fine, except I was troubled by the smudge in the middle of my field of view. I asked my sons and wife what they thought it was but all 3 said they couldn't see any smudge. "The smudge there, right in the middle!!!"

"Sorry dad, no smudge...."

What would they know!!

The next day I was determined to clean the smudge that I only saw using the 10mm with the 2x barlow. I put the two together and looked at a white wall. There it is!! "I can see you wascally smudge!!"

I cleaned both the eyepiece and the barlow, joined them together, looked at the wall and the smudge was still there. So which component had the smudge - eyepiece or barlow? I rotated the eyepiece but the smudge did not move. OK, it must be on the barlow. Unfortunately, when I rotated the barlow the smudge still did not move! Then it dawned on me. There was only one place left it could be...

So after my two cataract operations (at a young age I might add!), I can now see clearly and I no longer have a smudge visible when using high magnifications!!

Cheers,
Mario

[Screwdriverone]

HA HA HA HA HA. nice one Mario,

I was betting it was on your glasses.

But a cataract, unfortunate, but very funny.

Bet you saw some very nice, consistent "galaxies" for a while eh??

Cheers

Chris

[cybereye]

Chris,

I can tell you it was very frustrating! The problem was only visible at high magnification because the light was passing only through the cataract and not around the sides as with the lower magnification eyepieces.

Galaxies, nebulae - I've seen them all! If only they'd existed....

Mario

[Screwdriverone]

I have "chased" a few unidentified spots and "shadows" when looking at Jupiter and Saturn, until I realised they were "floaters" - little hairs and specks within my eyes like you see when you look at a blank blue sky and see the spots falling away when you look at them.

They are a bugger when you are looking at something bright. I reckon I must have more than 100 at last count. Probably from my brothers chucking sand in my eyes 30 years ago on holidays, dunno.

Cheers

Chris

[CoolhandJo]

These are actually imperfections in the eye "gel" (Vitreous Humour) that cast shadows depicting squickly lines / specks. So I wouldnt blame your brothers yet :lol:. Pretty normal unless you get a sudden increase in number, in which case you should get them checked.

Note Disclaimer - I am not a medical doctor! This is general information and not medical advice :P

[mithrandir]

IIRC floaters are cells that have come off from the interior of the eye. Eventually they seem to dissolve. Satchmo might have a second opinion.

[Jen]

:lol::lol: i soo love this thread, :rofl: very funny stories hehehhehehe :thumbsup:

[Spanrz]

Mine "doh" moment was cleaning the mirror of first Newt scope.
Even though it was a 4 1/2", it was pride and joy.
It did everything to take care of it, especially when I rubbed off the coating. when I was lightly cleaning it. I was only a teen, and thought the coating on the primary mirror was a little tougher.
$60 and 2 months later, ahhh bliss, only for the scope to be burnt in a fire a few years later. Ahhhhhhh.

[michaellxv]

Went out for my first observing session with the club. Thought I knew where I was going.

Couldn't find it, especially once it got dark. Forgot to bring the phone number of the contact.:screwy:

Once back home I looked up the directions again. I should have turned right at the T junction and gone about 200m up the road. DOH!!!

There's always next month. and it wasn't a perfectly clear night anyway.:shrug:

[GrahamL]

Leaving glen c one night to travel home I took the wrong turn at the end
of his street.. I did notice two other cars in the posse.. heading away from me which seemed odd , I thought one of them had got ot wrong..I blissfully drove for 20 minutes convincing myself the whlole way I was on the right road ( despite it looking pretty differant to how I remembered it.) only realised when I drove past the one I was sposed to be on.

More recently in a hurry to get back to my scope launched my shin into a fair sized slab of silky oak I'd perched on a besser brick to feed my wild ducks that come and visit .. and while still staggering about from the blow with the blood a flowin .. stumbled into there water dish ( a large bowl).. which I'd also put there.. and cataputed 4 ltrs of water all over myself as I fell to the ground :)

enough for now I'll be back soon :D

[DavidU]

HAHAHAHA :D:thumbsup:

[that_guy]

I was looking for jupiter with the finder scope when I thought i found it, I looked through the eyepiece and saw just a white blob I kept on checking if the focus was right checked the colimation.. peered through again. then I realized... I was viewing a distant street light... :screwy::screwy::screwy:

[duncan]

Hi All,

Trying to use various video capture programmes with the Toucam, NONE!! of which had a GAIN CONTROL.
Settled on "wxAstroCapture".

Might get somewhere now!

Duncan:screwy:

[middy]

Here's a non-astro D'Oh moment .....

Last year we were on holiday in Malaysia and we borrowed a car to drive to the shopping centre. We parked the car and went inside to do some shopping. We come out an hour later and make our way to where we left the car. I press the remote to unlock the car and I remember at the time thinking that I hadn't heard the doors unlock, but put it down to not hearing it due to other traffic noise around. The kids open the back door to climb in, I open the driver's door and start to swing a leg in. It was then that I noticed a young girl (early teens) sitting in the passenger seat, eyes as big as saucers looking petrified waving her hands madly in a "no, no" gesture.

You know what it's like when something unexpected happens and it takes your brain a while to catch up. I am thinking "how did this girl get into our car and what is she doing sitting in the passenger seat?". It was then I started to notice things inside the car were somehow a bit different and then I realised it must be the wrong car! :doh:

Our car was actually parked 5 or 6 cars further down the row, but this car was the exact same model, exact same colour with the same detailing stickers on the side. The only difference was the number plate of course, but being a borrowed car I wouldn't have known what our number plate was. Boy was I embarassed. :ashamed:

I sometimes wonder how her side of the story went to her family when they came back, maybe how she bravely scared off a group of people who tried to kidnap her and steal the car. :lol:

[Liz]

:lol::lol:

[Liz]

:lol::lol:

[Liz]

All very funny guys, thanks :lol:

Oh well ... heres another for me. I set up my collapsible Dob the other night when we FINALLY had clear skies. :astron:Set it up in the arvo, so all set when I went out when dark Alas, couldnt get anything focussed :mad2:
Checked the mirrors, changed eyepieces ..... but nothing :shrug: ... all very hot and sweat pouring off me in copious amounts, with multitudes of mozzies trying to land on me.
Went outside again at 4am .... thought I would have a go at the Moon, but still no go?????
Posted a thread, and Nettie asked if I had extended the Dob totally ... well, I thought I had, but, yikes, no. There was about 6" left under the tightening screws :shrug: Live and learn :rolleyes: :bowdown:Nettie.
Still havent had a chance to recheck, due to cloud, so hopefully that was the problem. :confuse3:

[troypiggo]

This thread is great. :lol: One from me the other night...

Been a while since I've used the SynScan controller on my mount, since I typically use EQMod. Was just visual testing out the new 10" newtonian so thought I'd keep it simple and use the hand controller. Set the location and date etc, went to do the 3 star align and it kept failing because RA was out by 45 degrees. Re-did it. Same problem. Re-checked all the dates and locations 3 times over. Same problem. So much for keeping it simple...

I now have a new mantra for using the hand controller:

The date format is MM-DD-YYYY
The date format is MM-DD-YYYY
The date format is MM-DD-YYYY
The date format is MM-DD-YYYY
The date format is MM-DD-YYYY

[michaellxv]

I can top that. I deliberately write the names of months at work for exactly that reason. Didn't stop me writing Feb instead of Mar.

I think I am loosing it. :screwy:

[troypiggo]

:lol:

[mithrandir]

The same on Celestron HCs. Using the GPS saves me remembering.



Dealing with USAsians all the time you get used to their dates and the ambiguities of their timezones. I use names to avoid confusion.

[GrampianStars]

:rolleyes: my biggie DoH!! was this Labour Day W/E just gone.
Rushing to get out of Melbourne Friday noon, Packed bags @ the ready,
3 hour :driving: later in the wife's car, I found I left one bag behind with the spare keys 2 the Obs ! :sad:
and the 1st set of keys snuggled in MY car's glovebox 250Ks away :eek:

Lucky for the :cloudy: and Rain Eh!

[Geoff. Lyons]

A few months ago I took my 8" dob outside to see if there were any sunspots about. Put on the Baader solar filter, found the sun (using shadows), took all safety precautions before looking in EP. After about 15 seconds, WOTS THAT SMELL? Looking up to see smoke pouring out of my Telrad, oops!! Maybe thats why there's a warning to remove it on the lid. :sadeyes::screwy:

[duncan]

Hi All,
Spent all nigh last night trying to image Mars & Saturn. First mistake ,still had Hartmanns Mask in place.
Second mistake shutter speed incorrect.
Third mistake and KILLER!!!!!!!, the dammned Toucam was off center in the EP holder. 7 Hours for NOUGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best viewing so far here in Weipa!!

OH WELL!! Try again tonight, but high cirrus cloud around.

Cheers,
Duncan:screwy:

[freespace]

My Camera adapter has a flared end going into the scope. With a focuser using friction screws, the screws once in would physically prevent the camera adapter from slipping out. The only way for that to happen is if the screws broke.

With a focuser using compress ring, the adapter is held in by friction, and due to the flair, has less surface area than usual. Camera adapter can slip out if static friction is insufficient.

My old scope used friction screws, new scope uses compression ring. You know what's coming next...

Yep, it slipped out and fell in the middle of slewing :(

Fell about 1.2 m onto hard tiles and bounced... seems ok though...

[Jen]

:eyepop: yep thats a Doh moment alright but i also would have had quite a few horror words to say after that too :lol:

[astrospotter]

That solar stuff will do it every time.

Spent a lot of time getting a black/while film negative (what is that???) to be just the right scale to insert into my 9x50 orion style finder scope. Loved the thing and used it 2 nights. Then a solar event was to happen so setup my scope of course very careful on front solar filter for the OTA and line up to the sun watching the shadow on the ground behind this scope.

Lookin at the sun and yes, the odd burned plastic smell and smoke was detected.

My hard earned film target had a 3/16 inch burned and melted a nasty chared edge hole dead center. :P

I was right next to a guy who does talks to beginners and I sent him a picture showing the burned hole and I think he was going to show people that to 'burn in' the idea that one should NEVER look at the sun through ANYthing.

LOL

Had to make another one later and improved the pattern anyway but next time I shot 5 or 6 of um in case I was stupid again but I'll remember that first one.

Pic attached

DOH!

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: nice pic :thumbsup:

[OneOfOne]

Had one last night (Thur 25 Mar). I had got all set up for a school viewing event, tripod setup, scope mounted, got the battery out, but no lead to connect to the scope. Ah, it will be in the other battery (I usually take both batteries with me in case one goes flat). Nup, no lead :(. I "always" leave it plugged into one of the batteries...well, almost "always":sadeyes:. I tried to move the scope around to the Moon but the locking clamps are on the opposite side to the finder and my arms aren't that long. It is also very difficult to move an EQ mount manually, the CGE has no facility at all to move it manually and if you loosen the clamps you risk having the whole thing "go". So I packed up and went home early, thankfully we had about half a dozen other scopes :)

[mishku]

bumping this thread... brilliant stories :)

[Poita]

Unlocking the clutch on the mount after removing the counterweights but not the scope, having it swing around and hit me hard, and wedging my head between the scope and mount.

[jjjnettie]

Hands Poita the trophy for "Doh Moment of the Week!"

[Jen]

:rofl::rofl: yep im guilty of doing that too :mad2: more than once :rolleyes: you would think i would have learnt by now :help::lol:

:doh::doh: