Quick thinking saves the night

[Forgey]

MPAS had a viewing night at narre warren south primary school for about 100 grade 5 students, teachers and their parents and I forgot to take the screws for the spring that hold the telescope in place lol.
A big thanks to Greg for his quick thinking, the allen key and screwdriver worked like a charm ! lol

[mental4astro]

Not gonna forget next time, eh!

Very good thinking for sure, :thumbsup:.

[ColHut]

Okay I've got to ask...

Why do you take the spring support screws out? :question:
And aren't the springs normally the other way up so you can pull down on them to get the end of the spring over the lower hook support screws? Just mighty curious :)

Great improvisation though!:)

[Shark Bait]

Another great modification! Still, not as good as the Azimuth adjustment though. ;)

[Allan_L]

Hey Paula,
Isn't it a real BUZZ to show the wonders of the skies to eager school kids.

But I had a similar D'oh! moment last year.

With about 150 excited youngsters at Camp Wolstencroft, most up on a step ladder, looking through my Celestron CPC1100 in the dark...

When packing up at the end of the night, I realised I forgot to screw the three screws holding the 28kg mount and OTA to the field tripod !!! :eyepop:

Unbelievable!!! Could have ended in disaster !!! But it did not budge nor even loose alignment.

Just goes to show what a STABLE setup the CPC is. :D :doh:

[Forgey]

I had the scope mounted on my eq mount the other day and forgot to put them back in.

[ColHut]

Ahh! Obvious I suppose! They get in the way when you rotate the scope?:)

regards

[Forgey]

Everyone had a great time, the kids were shown the moon, mars, saturn and a few nebula.
Most were blown away with the moon with comments like "wow i can see the craters"

and my favourite,

Student: "is that the moon? that's not real"
Me: "It sure is"
Student: "wow mum mum you gotta come look at this"

lol

[jjjnettie]

:D Glad you had a great day with the kids Paula.