The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Astro experiences

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Be at the eyepiece, next to a monitor, tweaking things, eventually something happens that is exhilarating , exasperating , or leaves you shaking your head

Some things that have happened to me over the years:

* Got the Spooks called on me when out in a park one night in Sydney's eastern suburbs sorting out a new truss dob. Coincided with the first lot of
"be aware, not alarmed" dob in a terrorist neighbour crap... flaming Spooks go all out "James Bond", cops would just come up and ask what's going on and ask to have a look.

* Had one bloke get crook on me one outreach night, declaring that my 5" SCT "wasn't a real telescope - I know what a real telescope looks like!"

* Another outreach night, another bloke accused me of being a fraud when he saw Saturn through the same C5. He said I "had put a picture in that thing!" Closest I ever got to fisty-cuffs in astro!

* One outreach event was at Bear Cottage, the childrens' hospice out Manly way. I discovered the power of video astronomy that night. I also saw how fortunate I was as a father to have to healthy kids. When I got home that night, I cried inconsolably for an hour. Definitely my outreach highlight of all time,

* Crapped myself one night when a sheep crept up behind me at 3am at a dark site and sneezed right behind me! Yeah, yeah, leave the Kiwi jokes out of this please...

* I get a little kick every time I show someone Saturn for the first time,

* Cleaning my video camera one time, the little sucker slipped from my fingers, did a little dance on my frantic fingertips, and then smashed and skipped across a concrete floor... definitely my astro low point...

* "Discovered" Saturn when I was 13 years old. Was following Mars' motion across the sky over a few weeks, when I got suspicious of the reference 'star' I was using. Decided one night just to have a look at this star just for the hell of it, and WOW, GOD DAMN FLAMING SATURN!!!

Just some of the good, the bad and the ugly experiences I've had with astro over the years.

Care to share some of yours?

Alex.

[el_draco (Rom)]

Originally Posted by mental4astro

* "Discovered" Saturn when I was 13 years old. Was following Mars' motion across the sky over a few weeks, when I got suspicious of the reference 'star' I was using. Decided one night just to have a look at this star just for the hell of it, and WOW, GOD DAMN FLAMING SATURN!!!

Did this when I was 12 using a 60mm refractor... Teary moment I don't mind admitting.

Equal top moments,
- showing elderly man Halley's comet through my 29" newt and then having him say he'd waited a long time to see it again...

- meeting Clyde Tombaugh

Funniest
- Taking my gorgeous wife to 7 mile beach late one night near Hobart airport for some "stargazing" and having Federal police phone us and ask why our vehicle was parked near the end of the runway. (During the terrorism paranoia) Lots of giggling and fast talking, some of it from the Fed..

Most opportunistic
- Taking a class group for a drive into country Victoria for their first nights observing only to have the most spectacular aurora I've ever seen explode across the sky. Some of them had cameras and had their photos published... Bloody hard act to repeat

[rally]

Havent had the same amount of experiences as Alex, but it seems that some people find it hard to believe they are seeing another planet as clearly as they can through a good scope.

Was doing a School star party and had the parents (who also looked through the eyepiece) quietly accuse of me of putting a picture of Saturn in the telescope to fool the kids !
They asked me where I was inserting the slides !!
They were dead serious and took quite some convincing !

The other not so bad but could have been worse experience was removing my 6" refractor with all AP gear attached (approx 40kg) off the mount - it slid almost all the way out and then locked and I was on my own with 40kg of telescope in my arms with my strength slowly failing - I couldnt push it back up and I couldnt let it slide out !
I think I spent 10 minutes trying different things but it certainly felt like an hour !
I didnt want to force anything for obvious reasons, and I was eventually able to slide it back up to the balance point again and an hour later try it again with a helper by my side whereupon it came out easilyas it had always done prior and since !

Rally

[Stonius (Markus)]

I remember scaring the hell out of the Milkman at 4 in the morning with my bazooka / balaclava combo (AKA 60mm refractor and sensible astronomy attire).

* Seeing SN1987a. Long as I live I'll surely never see a supernova that close again.

* Going down to the Coorong to try and find Comet Halley when it wasn't supposed to be that good yet. In fact it turned out to be the best time to see it.

*Massive fireball lighting up the Stockport star party like day. Completely ruined our dark adaption, but we didn't mind.

*quite recently, actually, managing to photograph detail on Mars. I didn't think it possible without a proper astrophotography setup.

*getting to know the neighbours just by standing in the front yard at night with a telescope. Haven't met these people in all the years I've lived here. Now all of a sudden I know most of them because people simply can't resist chatting to a dude with a telescope for some reason. Makes the street feel safer too.

*taking my son's primary school class to talk about the transit of Venus, Captain Cook, and projecting the event with my 8" Dob for all to see to little cries of 'wow' and 'awesome'! Scored big brownie points with my son for that one. :-)

[pgc hunter]

Last week at my dark site, 20km from the nearest toilet, I nearly diarrhea'd myself for real.

The night already got off to a poor start, with the forecast of mostly sunny seeing me waiting in the car for 4 hours for the clouds and showers to clear. I came prepared, with chicken, hot chocolate, biscuits and toilet paper for runny nose and emergencies. I got the scope setup in the dark (don't like setting up in the dark), I waited for the mirrors to cool. While waiting, I decided to eat the chicken. So I did. Later on it was getting cold so I had some hot chocolate.

As the night wore on, I was getting frustrated by fogging eyepieces, extreme dew and my stomach was starting to cramp. Eventually I got sick of the fogging and at the same time, the magma chambers kicked into action. Oh god, I was out here in the middle of nowhere at 3am, with a truss dob to tear down and a whole bunch of gear to put away, pressure building up and not being able to move lest an avalanche of mud explode forth.

I was deadset ready to go there and then, infact I had the dunny paper in my hand, but then I realised going there and then would mean a half naked drive home assuming I survived and an excuse of why my pants were missing. So I summoned all my will power and got everything packed in. Finally jump in the driver's seat, pressure slowly reaching critical mass. The car's windows were all fogged up. Ofcourse. I turned the de-mister on full and the stupid blooooooody thing would not remove the damn fog. The ONE bloody time the POS doesn't work HAS to be now. Goddamnit! Then there was the drive home on kangaroo infested roads....

Long story short I made it home and what followed was a brief trip of transcendence to a higher plane of existence...

[deanm (Dean)]

PGC - what a crap story...!

My worst moment was, in slow-motion, watching the then-new C11 OTA topple the head off the EQ mount because I hadn't first fitted the balance weights or tightened the head mounting bolts...horrible!

I very nearly broke a couple of fingers trying to arrest the impact of the OTA.

Amazingly, no significant damage, just scratches!

Dean

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

PGC, I wasn't so fortunate one time myself, And it happened to me as I literally turned after I locked the door to the house and with the family in the car waiting for me, and running late for an appointment. No warning, no cramps, just the 'rush'... I actually thought it was funny at the time too though I wasn't thrilled by it, SWMBO was not impressed ... like it was my fault too... The kids thought it was hilarious dad should crap his pants!

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Boy's please, I'm having lunch ....

[Shano592 (Shane)]

...at 9am?

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by Shano592

...at 9am?

Yep ....I had breakfast at 4am

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Some things that have happened to me over the years:

* Got the Spooks called on me when out in a park one night in Sydney's eastern suburbs sorting out a new truss dob. Coincided with the first lot of "be aware, not alarmed" dob in a terrorist neighbour crap... flaming Spooks go all out "James Bond", cops would just come up and ask what's going on and ask to have a look.

Tick. Had the cops but never the spooks.

* Had one bloke get crook on me one outreach night, declaring that my 5" SCT "wasn't a real telescope - I know what a real telescope looks like!"

Yep, my opinion of SCTs too.

* Another outreach night, another bloke accused me of being a fraud when he saw Saturn through the same C5. He said I "had put a picture in that thing!" Closest I ever got to fisty-cuffs in astro!

Tick. Also been accused of using a picture. Seeing was very good and the tracking was spot on. No fisty-cuffs involved, just a giggle. I took the mistake as a compliment.

* One outreach event was at Bear Cottage, the childrens' hospice out Manly way. I discovered the power of video astronomy that night. I also saw how fortunate I was as a father to have to healthy kids. When I got home that night, I cried inconsolably for an hour. Definitely my outreach highlight of all time,

I can see how that experience could be good and bad at once.

[kittenshark (Cheryl-Ann Tan)]

I know someone who did public outreach at a nudist camp.

At least it was dark.

Should I ask them for more details?

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by kittenshark

I know someone who did public outreach at a nudist camp.

At least it was dark.

Should I ask them for more details?

No .... we want pic's

[kittenshark (Cheryl-Ann Tan)]

A customer of ours was doing outreach on a beach, and some folks were so excited that they decided to give a donation of several gold coins...

...which they dropped into the bucket--

the light bucket.

[PCH (Paul)]

Originally Posted by kittenshark

I know someone who did public outreach at a nudist camp.

At least it was dark.

Should I ask them for more details?

You can imagine the views you'd get as they contort their bodies into some of the positions your equatorial mount user gets into

You'd wanna have lunch first I'm guessing, - views like that can play havoc with your appetite!

[skysurfer]

In Aug 2012 my Televue Genesis fell off the mount when I forgot to tighten the mount screws ....
It fell on a concrete tiles floor

So I unscrewed the objective cover which was very tight as it was slightly deformed by the impact and I expected cracks in the objective, but NO cracks.

Then I mounted it again (now tightening the screws decently), pointed it at a treetop and put the highest magnification eyepiece in it (200x) and saw an unscathed image !!!

After dark I did a star test on Arcturus and saw a neat Airy disk !!!

So this scope is really built like a tank !!

In the meantime I sold it and replaced it with a 110ED which has a shorter build length (for travel) despite its longer FL and provides at least the same quality.


And my greatest disappointment is also my very first observation in my life.

Wednesday, 8 December 1965, I was 10. There would be a small lunar eclipse visible in Europe which was my very first eclipse, I just started with astronomy. I had no telescope or other optical device, just my eyes. It was not total, but I expected red discoloration.
On the very moment 18:08 local time I saw a normal bright full moon so I considered the prediction as fake.
It turned out to be a penumbral eclipse of 88% which only shows a slight dimming on one side of the Moon and as a boy of 10 I had no idea what that meant so I did not notice it.

[pfitzgerald (Paul)]

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

[Stonius (Markus)]

Originally Posted by pfitzgerald

• 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

So what did you use the time to image?

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I have never really had "The Ugly" but have certainly had the good and the bad.

14 years old and using a telescope borrowed from my school (An old Meade 114 newt on an EQ mount which I somehow set up well enough to use) basically just pointing randomly, found a couple of what were presumably visual doubles (Rather than proper double stars) and then after yet another random point, BAM, Saturn in all it's glory. Instantly hooked.

The bad was a couple of years ago, my then quite new Celestron CPC925 and we had some friends over for a viewing night. My son (Then about 4) was messing around (With an old spark plug, sorry, "Spaceship") and as I looked away "Docked" it in the PC port of the CPC mount. Not even a fizzle or burst of smoke, but it was dead! Temporarily fixed when I found that a buffer chip had died and was tying the signal line between the hand controller and main control board to ground by the expedient of cutting the chip off the board with a razor blade (No way I would be able to desolder a little surface mount chip with the gear I had)

I actually fixed it properly eventually when I could convince the service agent that I was actually a tech and knew what I was doing and WAS NOT going to ship the thing to them so they could charge me to fault find and replace the interface board that I already knew was faulty. I guess you could call that the ugly, I pretty much had to tell them that I would find a way to buy the board from the US directly before they would sell me a $20 PCB that should cost about $5, it is the size of a credit card with two small connector headers, two RJ sockets that poke through the top panel of the mount base and a bi directional buffer chip on it.

[pfitzgerald (Paul)]

Hi Markus

I submitted the emission nebula Gum 85 (Sh 2-54) near the open cluster NGC 6604 (and M16 and M17) as a suitable target for imaging by the Gemini South Telescope, and chose to have it imaged in broadband.

The image is a composite of two framings - the GMOS sensor covers 5.5' x 5.5' of the sky. The filters and capture times for each framing were as follows:

3 x 90" with H-alpha filter 654-661 nm, 656 nm effective
3 x 45" with i (infrared) 706-850 nm, 780 nm effective
3 x 90" with u (ultraviolet) 336-385 nm, 350 nm effective
3 x 60" with g (green) 398-552 nm, 475 nm effective

The choice of filters and exposure timings were mutually decided upon by Professor Travis Rector (University of Alaska) and myself. Travis processed the captured fit files, finishing the image in Photoshop.

Here's a link to a larger version of the image, a smaller one of which I use as my avatar.

https://www.aao.gov.au/itso/outreach/GeminiContest

Paul

PS Thank you for your interest in the image.