Disaster

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Only on IIS could I post a story about a disaster of 'astronomical proportions' and mean that my guide scope and camera slipped of the mount and hit the concrete!!!

Which is what happened last night - with my new cooled dslr on one side of the side by side plate, and the cheapo 80mm guidescope and rings on the other, I was balancing the setup. The screws must have worked loose as the whole side by side plate decided to bungy sans cord and hit the patio!

"Luckily" the guidescope side bore the brunt of the impact and not the DSLR and Canon lens - but one of the ADM guiderings and 2 screw adjusters were mangled beyond repair along with the GSO refractor focuser which is totally stuffed too - Camera and Lens unscathed minus a few superficial scratches and working 100% Thank Allah!!!! (Mods can remove that bit if necessary!!)

Emergency order placed with Bintel for replacement focuser and Guiderings, so hopefully back in biz next week and $200 lighter of pocket/credit card!

But I tell you all, when you watch the tools of your passion suffer some gravitational karma it's a yucky feeling!

TIGHTEN YOUR SCREWS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!



Doug

[Redshift (Phil)]

That is some bad luck Doug. Similar thing happened to me when I didn't properly attach my favourite Carl Zeiss lens to my 35mm Contax SLR. Gives you a rush of the nasties when you hear the lens hit the pavement.
Phil

[ngcles]

Hi Doug & All,

To quote Dr Sheldon Cooper:

"Gravity ... thou art a heartless bit*ch"

Could have been worse I guess -- much worse.


Best,

Les D

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by Redshift

That is some bad luck Doug. Similar thing happened to me when I didn't properly attach my favourite Carl Zeiss lens to my 35mm Contax SLR. Gives you a rush of the nasties when you hear the lens hit the pavement.
Phil

I know Phil (fresh in the memory!!)
There's that intake of breath before the inevitable...
FFFFFFFF*******###########PPPPPPPPP

That's "flip" if there's kiddies watching!

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

[QUOTE=ngcles;660364]Hi Doug & All,

To quote Dr Sheldon Cooper:

"Gravity ... though art a heartless bit*ch"
/QUOTE]

Agreed Les...LOL

[issdaol (Phil)]

jeeze Doug that was unlucky, but lucky that you new camera survived.

Every now and then I have unwanted visions of my Mewlon 300 sliding out of the saddle plate because I have not locked it in properly or the tightening screws fail for some reason.

Unfortunately I live in town and like taking it to dark sites for visual work so I am just going to have to deal with the tension

Cheers

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

My sympathies Doug.

[h0ughy (David)]

i have been there and in my case i did tighten the screws - too much and it bent the cheap plate that was the mount base - learn the hard way i did . I am glad your camera is untouched

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Oh Doug, I feel for you mate. What a sick gut wrenching feeling that must have been. Here's fingers crossed for positive outcomes.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Thanks chaps and chapesses(!)
All seems to be OK with the DSLR - tested thoroughly afterwards!
First time it's happened to me - although there have been close calls, but none so dramatic.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

i have been there and in my case i did tighten the screws - too much and it bent the cheap plate that was the mount base - learn the hard way i did . I am glad your camera is untouched

So this is why you have so much gear Dave - if something hits the deck you just kick it out the way and go to the 'Astro 40D shelf' and grab another!!!

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Yikes!

Yep, I know how you feel Doug. It's a Gut-wrenching feeling.

I had all my gear, both Scopes, cameras, and mount blow over in that massive storm about 3 months back and it all laid in the heavy rain and mud all night coz it was too dangerous to go save it.

And I hear it happened to a few at Border Stargaze too.

Some of us have been there and really feel for you

You'll be back at it before New Moon

[Octane (Humayun)]

For a moment, I thought your new cooled 40D got totalled in the fall.

Thankfully, you're OK.

Breathe easy, Doug. ; )

H

[leon]

Gee Doug, I can feel the pain in you as it hit the ground, and that sick feeling as the worry set in.

Glad it was not your new Camera, and I hope you can get it up and running soon mate.

Leon

[multiweb (Marc)]

$200.00? Could have been much worse if the DSLR was damaged. Doesn't matter how tight you screw your dovetail. With temperature changes it's bound to slip again. The only way is to drill your plates and put grab screws or knobs in place to stop the slide. Losmandy plates have this standard and so many times I had something slip out of my hands including the C11 just stopped by that little plastic thingy from a sure disaster.

[TrevorW]

Dougie you should have posted sooner I"ve got a GSO Focuser that's gathering dust you could probbly have got for a song and I'm sure others here have stuff that they don't need that could have helped out.

I've dropped my ED80 once onto concrete and like you glad(lucky) it didn't break a lens, all the best anyway.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Yikes!

Yep, I know how you feel Doug. It's a Gut-wrenching feeling.

I had all my gear, both Scopes, cameras, and mount blow over in that massive storm about 3 months back and it all laid in the heavy rain and mud all night coz it was too dangerous to go save it.

Some of us have been there and really feel for you

I remember that night you posted Ken - I felt for you!!!

Originally Posted by Octane

For a moment, I thought your new cooled 40D got totalled in the fall.

Thankfully, you're OK.

H

Just emotionally disturbed H - 40D seems fine, ran a set of darks for over 2 hours with no problems and a few test shots show that everything seems to still be in alignment. It was the guidescope that hit the deck first and the DSLR kind of slowly tipped after it.

Originally Posted by leon

Gee Doug, I can feel the pain in you as it hit the ground, and that sick feeling as the worry set in.

Glad it was not your new Camera, and I hope you can get it up and running soon mate.

Leon

Cheers leon - 'sick' was the word indeed! Replacement stuff is on order, hopefully all sorted by next week. Fingers crossed!

Originally Posted by multiweb

$200.00? Could have been much worse if the DSLR was damaged. Doesn't matter how tight you screw your dovetail. With temperature changes it's bound to slip again. The only way is to drill your plates and put grab screws or knobs in place to stop the slide. Losmandy plates have this standard and so many times I had something slip out of my hands including the C11 just stopped by that little plastic thingy from a sure disaster.

Yep $200 is getting off lightly I reckon.

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Dougie you should have posted sooner I"ve got a GSO Focuser that's gathering dust you could probbly have got for a song and I'm sure others here have stuff that they don't need that could have helped out.

I've dropped my ED80 once onto concrete and like you glad(lucky) it didn't break a lens, all the best anyway.

Cheers Trevor - I should have put a wanted ad in the classifieds!
Sounds like we've all had close calls at some point.

Thanks all for the sympathy!
Doug

[hotspur (Chris)]

sorry to read this,glad the DSLR is ok,

If you have house and contents insurance,you should be covered.

Reminds me I should get mine up dated.

It really is a worry this happening to gear.I have my gear in observatory and

always check and re check tightness of screws,but I still,have had a few near miss events with naglar eyepiece slipping out.

Hope you never can get some insurance to pay for new guidescope.

C

[mozzie (Peter)]

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

So this is why you have so much gear Dave - if something hits the deck you just kick it out the way and go to the 'Astro 40D shelf' and grab another!!!

good one doug!!!!!

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Only $200??? Isn't this a time when you must spend several times that on upgraded gear before you can possibly recover from the shock?