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The Good
• Seeing Saturn and its rings for the first time through a 4.5" Newtonion c1987.
• Watching part of the 2004 transit of Venus via projection using a Celestron C8.
• The friendships made and the help and advice that I have received from the folk here on IIS and at SVAC.
The Awesome
• Organising and watching the 2012 transit of Venus from start to finish using projection and eclipse glasses with 900+ staff and students at my school.
• Having it 'all' come together for that first night's imaging with five minute subs and watching the images appear on the laptop screen: M45, M42, NGC 2024 + Horse Head Nebula and finishing off with NGC 3372 - I was like a kid in the candy store that night!
• Winning an hours imaging time on the Gemini South Telescope in 2013 for being the inaugural winner of the amateur section of their telescope competition.
The Bad
• Melbourne's weather for the past 18 months - really frustrating to have so few viewing nights that fitted in with day-to-day 'life'. (Can't wait for retirement)
• The frustration when you do get a good night weatherwise, and for whatever reason the guidescope and laptop won't talk to each other, or there's another small item of equipment failure.
The Ugly
• First light with my brand new ED120 on a HEQ5 Pro mount with pillar extension and in the process of aligning tried to lift one of the tripod legs to shift the scope a little - major bad move - gravity took over and the scope toppled over. I did manage to break its fall, but not before snapping off the finderscope, snapping the screws for one of the bearings for the focuser and dinging the dew shield at the objective end. I cradled the scope and wept for several minutes before gingerly packing it all away thinking that I'd damaged/destroyed what I had saved for a year to buy. Fortunately I didn't damage the lens or put it out of collimation and with the help of a good friend we fixed the scopes other injuries. It's seen many hours of use since.
Paul
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