Storm Telescope Damage

[ballaratdragons]

We are currently having extreme damaging winds of amazing strength. The roof sheets on the house are banging up and down and the house is shaking and all I can hear is the roar of the wind!

I just went outside to video it all but discovered to my horror that my whole Astro setup has blown over and is laying in the rain!

My son and I tried to rescue it but the wind is too strong and there are things blowing around zooming past us so we have had to abandon the idea of saving my gear!

I have my ED80, 120mm Achro, Toucam, Heaters, laser, etc all up on the EQ6 on a Heavy Duty Field tripod covered by 2 layers of Tarp, but it is now crashed down to the ground getting rained on.

I won't risk going back out to save it until this damaging windstorm ceases. I have no idea what is broken and I am trying not to think of the damage. We did manage to get another tarp over it all.

[pgc hunter]

:eek: That was some painful reading. I hope your gear survives intact and with minimum damage.

[DavidU]

Shocking news !
Damn awful weather here in Vic at the moment.

[astroron]

That's not nice news Ken:( I hope the damage is not too severe:prey:

[renormalised]

Keep your fingers crossed and hope it's not too badly damaged!!!!.

[Suzy]

Oh gosh Ken, I really do hope that everything will be fine not only with your equipment, but the house as well. That post of yours made my heart pick up pace!

[danielsun]

That's really bad news Ken.:( I have been wondering how you guys were doing after hearing on the new that Ballarat and central Vic are getting pounded.
Hope there is no real damage and you get through the rest of it O.K.

[byronpaul]

Ken, that's no good.

Stay inside !!! Hope you, the boys and the rest of your family get through the night with no other problems.

[Alchemy]

Just woken up by same storm...... Yikes for the gear.

[Ric]

That's not good at all Ken, fingers crossed for you mate.

Those winds and storm arrived here last night, so far all is good but it hasn't let up for about 5 hours.

We lost a tree that came down across our access road so I was out there chain sawing in the dark with my wife holding the torch.

[sheeny]

Fingers crossed for you Ken!

Al.

[leon]

yes ken that is bad news indeed, hope the damage is minor, you guys must have got the main front of the storm, as here in Ballarat we got a good flogging but are reasonably protected with houses etc.

Chin up mate, at least you are safe, the gear can be repaired or replaced at some stage

Leon

[Kevnool]

The main thing Ken is that you and your family are safe.
and as Leon said the gear can be repaired or replaced.

Cheers Kev.

[dugnsuz]

All the best Ken - hope your damage is minimal.
Stay safe
Doug

[Dave47tuc]

Sorry to hear Ken :(

Hope it can be saved and sorted out. :)

Last night was the worst wind I have seen down here we lost power but I have not ventured out on the roads yet but I'm sure many trees down.

All the best to you and the family Ken. :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Not good. Fingers crossed for your gear, but at least everyone is safe.

[rat156]

It was bad wasn't it Ken, we've lost a small part of the roof, won't know what else until I get up on the roof. That has to be the worst wind I can remember in 23 years in Werribee. I've yet to check the observatory, but it was still there. Hope the equipment has survived!

The wind woke me at about 2am, I heard the tile come from the roof, and just hoped that nothing else went with it. Then the power went out.

Cheers
Stuart

[TrevorW]

My Ed80 was dropped from 5 feet onto concrete and survived with a touch of paint removed so if you're lucky everything should be OK

All the best

[richardda1st]

PM sent

[AdrianF]

As long as everyone is safe. Equipment can be replaced.

Adrian

[ballaratdragons]

Hi guys.
Thanks for your thought.
We just got the power back on. It went out just after midnight.

House and Family all fine.
My gear seems relatively ok.
One broken Tube ring, one broken electric focuser bracket, and a lot of water inside the scopes, heater control box and mount electronics.

I had one spare tube ring the right size, so that is ok.
I will make another electric focuser bracket, and I have dried everything out .
I stripped the scopes down completely to dry them. Now to put them all back together.

Could have been a lot worse.

The most annoying part is that while we were monitoring the weather on the weather site (BOM), they cancelled the 'Severe Weather' warning about 1 hour before it hit!
Otherwise I would've brought everything inside.

But fortunately my gear seems to have survived ok.
The real test (electronics, collimation etc) will be when I fire it all up later.

[AstralTraveller]

That's a big relief. It sounded like it would be much worse.

[supernova1965]

There is a lubricant displacer that is meant for electronics it is called INOX it even has a picture of a PC on the front. It is non-conductive, non-static, non-corrosive and non-staining I have used it in my fans in my pc to stop them being so noisy. Glad you have no major damage to your gear house and your most important family and yourself of course.:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

dry the lot out Ken - be careful - if in doubt dont turn anything on unless its really dried out - use a hair dryer to start with then leave it in the sun when you can - maybe a week drying out will help. Glad to hear that you guys came out the other side

[kingkong01]

i hope that no one elses family and equipment was hurt in the bad weather down south

[Paddy]

Good to hear that your gear seems to have survived, Ken. And your house. And yourselves.

[erick]

Just read this Ken. That's a shocker! Hope it all recovers.

[spearo]

Hope everyone and everything is ok
frank