Hypothetical questions about a D'Oh moment

[troypiggo]

Just say there's this guy who is an IIS member. He hasn't done any active astro imaging since April last year, say, because he had a baby. Say the baby has been sleeping pretty well lately and Brisbane finally had some clear skies, albeit near full Moon, so this person was very excited and decided to get out and get amongst it.

This person had bought a 10" Newt just before said baby was born and hasn't really had a chance to image with it. Say he dropped around to a nearby fellow IIS member very experienced with Newts (let's call him "peter_4321" for anonymity) to make sure all was collimated and ready for his imaging session.

Now say this excited fellow, who is really quite handsome/charming/funny by the way, had all sorts of trouble getting focus on the Newt. He was using an Ha filter for almost the first time but was thinking that 4 min exposures should surely be showing up some bright stars (eg Sirius, kinda bright) to focus on but couldn't even find a star.

Then around 11pm he realised that inside the tube there was a sheet of A4 paper, used that afternoon in the collimation process, had slid down and was completely covering the primary.

So now the questions:

- Does this make the hypothetical person a complete goose, is he just out of practise, or put it down to experience?

- Is "peter_4321" still considered a friend if our hero called him up announcing his discovery and "Peter" wet himself laughing and took some minutes to get control of himself, or is he the most evil person ever? Especially since it was him that put the A4 paper in there in the first place.

- Should our hero ever attempt anything astro ever again?

- Should he reveal himself?

:sadeyes:

[supernova1965]

It makes him all of the above who should put it down to experience:P

And our hero should attempt astro stuff again

And yes Troy you should come out of the closet OOPS I already did it for you:sadeyes::help:

[Astroman]

All LOL's aside, I'd put it down to a great experience, you (err I mean this Hypothetical person) can look back on and have a chuckle over it, even if no one else around you.. err him, gets it... So far you have made my day, thanks for the entertainment :)

[[1ponders]]

I think after looking after a late night baby for so long its simply tiredness. Nothing to flog themself about.

Save the flogging for the friend. But then maybe not, he sounds the sort of person that would enjoy it.

Definitely keep going unless you feel like donating your equipment to a truly understanding person.

Signed.
IleftmyBTmaskonfor10x5minshotswhile imaginginmediumjpeg

[multiweb]

Baby => lack of sleep => poor concentration => problem solving gone south and astro needs a lot of it. Once you're out of 'wet land' and back to normal sleeping patterns you'll get back on your bike in no time. Just had to wait it out until now. Practice and get back into the rythm.

[Ric]

Put it down to experience Troy.

Some days or nights were never meant to be. We all have them.

I once spent 10 minutes trying to work out why the scope had no power, It always pays to see if the power is switched on first. :P

[wavelandscott]

I'm sure the nice chap will be fine. I once heard a tale about a guy who took his scope to public viewing night without taking along any eyepieces so it happens to everyone sometime.

[Draconis]

With my first scope i spent 2 hours looking at everything and wondering why it was all so dim, including the moon, I thought either there was something very wrong with my telescope or something very wrong with my eyes. I was swapping eypieces all over the shop and getting very confused. Then I realised it would probably be helpful to remove the whole dust cover and not just the central part...it was very embarrassing as I was showing the scope off to people at the time. :o

[TrevorW]

When adults copulate and have children they inevitably loose some of their own intelligence to their offspring through geneitic transference, as well as reverting to some promodial state by gooing, gaaing, rolling around the floor etc etc, plus on top of this lack of sleep, sensory invasion, your friend is lucky he didn't have twins otherwise said friend would be a right twit with triplets a moron.

[astroron]

We all have those moments Troy;)
I once took a 10" dob to a public field night about 200 kms round trip only to find that I had left the base behind:help::rolleyes:
luckely I had my 8" SCT but trying to show the night sky too about 60 people with one scope was a bit of an ask:rolleyes:

[peter_4059]

Troy,

I think that is known as a total eclipse of the primary.

peter_4321 says thanks for the entertainment last night :D

[jjjnettie]

Wish I could have been there to photograph the event for posterity.
LOL
Peter. we never did organise that "toilet tent folding" comp. did we.
""
For those who don't know, Astrofest 2008 closed with the infamously hilarious "toilet tent debacle".
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
For photos and animations and general abuse, follow this link.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=28514&highlight=toilet+tent&page=8

[acropolite]

No the Goose is the female of the species, unless you (oops sorry, the person) have undergone a recent sex change you fall squarely in the Gander class, which is puzzling because if you had taken a Gander down the tube you would have seen the paper.

The paper, whilst being used in this instance to aid collimation, was probably really there to prevent the aformentioned baby from vomiting down the tube, a sensible action under the circumstances.

Lack of sleep and (possible) intermittent bouts of henpecking can cause temporary memory lapses, therefore you can use Gen Y's standard disclaimer "it wasn't my fault".....:rofl:

[peter_4059]

The tent episode was funny because so many people tried and failed however Troy's solo performance last night had me in fits.

[troypiggo]

Peter! You've given it away! I had careful disguised our identities for anonymity!

[Waxing_Gibbous]

It reminds me of a similar 'goose', lets call him "notwaxing_gibbousinanyway", who on his one and only attempt at long-exposure AP, having done all that was necessary, set his rig in motion anly to discover 3 hours later that he had forgot to disable the "cfn13 -'allow shooting without card" on his 40D, which was, predictably, without card.:rolleyes:

Cheer up!

[Matt Wastell]

I would go down the goose line! Ha!!!!!
Not as bad leaving the front cap on an LX90 and being stumped for two hours!
Oh and yes, it only happens to the andsome/charming/funny ones!

[DavidU]

:lol::lol::lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Troy, suggest to this fellow that he hop in his car and drive to the nearest shopping centre (make sure there are no A4 sheets of paper covering the windscreen),
then look for the fishmonger.
Tell him to purchase a beautiful big schnapper.

Tell him to take home the said Schnapper.

On arriving home instruct him to unwrap the fish, and beat himself about the head with it!

:rofl:

Many of us do stuff like that.
I spent over half an hour trying to find common objects in my 12" dob with no success. The Dust cap was off. :shrug:
I had seen these objects hundreds of times and knew exactly where they were. :question:

I finally decided to check focus on a bright star.
Hmmmm . . . Bellatrix isn't supposed to be Green!!!!
:lol: I left the Dark Green Moon Filter on the EP.

And what is worse . . . . I have done the exact same thing several times :screwy:

:lol: Your not alone :thumbsup: