Direct hit.....

JohnG (John) · #1 08-12-2011, 10:31 AM

Hi all

Must apologize for not being around much of late, the area I live in (South-West Slopes region of NSW) had the biggest thunder/electrical storm in living memory about a week or so ago.

I suffered a direct hit on the house, through my Weather Station, as a result I still have not found most of the bits of the weather station, lol, unfortunately the strike caused a lot of damage to other parts of the house. Needless to say, the massive electrical surge destroyed a lot of gear and equipment, computers etc, unfortunately the surge went through the earth line and caused havoc in the Observatory, totally destroyed my computer system in there, the worst was that it has totally destroyed the electronics on my Takahashi NJP mount

, thought it had destroyed the CCD camera but I was able to get it going on my laptop and it appears to be all right until I can test it outside. All covered by Insurance but that wont help with the NJP mount, it appears that Takahashi don't make the Temma 2 conversion kit anymore, not sure what is going to happen with that.......

Last time I saw thunder and lightning like that was in the tropics when I was in the Navy and stationed out of Cairns, long time ago, lol.

Cheers

allan gould · #2 08-12-2011, 10:49 AM

John
So sorry to hear of the lightning strike on the house and observatory. You must be heartbroken about the mount. It's hard to have a piece of equipment you use night after night and it performs for you and then to have it fried like that is like seeing a friend go.
Wish there was something I could do.
Hope you get back into the game soon.
Allan

astroron (Ron) · #3 08-12-2011, 10:51 AM

John, glad you are alright

It must have been quite frightening

Lightening is one of my big fears living out here.
Sorry to hear about you house and gear

I hope you can get back to normal soon
soon

Cheers

niko · #4 08-12-2011, 11:02 AM

Jeez John,

glad to hear you are okay but what a bugger about the gear. Hopefully insurance will help cover the replacements costs.

Look after yaself mate - there's whacky weather out there.

niko

mishku · #5 08-12-2011, 11:03 AM

Shocking news, but glad you're ok!!

AstralTraveller (David) · #6 08-12-2011, 11:15 AM

Were you in the house at the time?? It must have been terrifying. I'm glad it was only equipment that was fried.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mishku

Shocking news, but glad you're ok!!

Oh yuk. Did you mean that?

rally · #7 08-12-2011, 11:20 AM

John,

Really sorry to hear about your misfortune.

I have two spare NJP (Temma series) motors that you can have or buy if that helps
I have a spare hand control as well, but not a Temma controller unit.

Cheers

Rally

GeoffW1 (Geoff) · #8 08-12-2011, 11:22 AM

Hi John,

Commiserations ! Glad to hear there was no-one injured at your place tho. Hope the recovery goes smoothly, it might be an opportunity for that new model bit of gear we all lust secretly after.

Cheers

JohnG (John) · #9 08-12-2011, 11:24 AM

Thanks guy's

Yep, was in the house, was deaf for about an hour after the bang

, I actually thought, this is it..........

The whole street suffered damage, guy next door suffered a heap of damage as well.

Was lucky that I had all my photos and data backed up on a removeable HD.

Biggest concern is about my mount, I don't know how I am going to go with that, will have to wait until the insurance assessment next Tuesday.

Cheers

Baddad (Marty) · #10 08-12-2011, 11:26 AM

Not good at all John.
At least you are OK. I can relate to lightning strike damage. Been through a couple here. I sort know how you feel.

Hopefully insurance will cover the lot.

Cheers

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #11 08-12-2011, 11:29 AM

Commiserations John. That would have been an awful experience. Hope everything is sorted out soon.

JohnG (John) · #12 08-12-2011, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rally

John,

Really sorry to hear about your misfortune.

I have two spare NJP (Temma series) motors that you can have or buy if that helps
I have a spare hand control as well, but not a Temma controller unit.

Cheers

Rally

Thanks for that, sent you a PM.

Cheers

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #13 08-12-2011, 11:37 AM

Sorry to hear of the travesty hope you get everything back on track soon.

casstony · #14 08-12-2011, 11:48 AM

Something I've wondered about is can the surge jump accross power switch contacts even if the switch is turned off? Did any equipment get damaged that was plugged into a switched off power point John?

bert (Brett) · #15 08-12-2011, 11:54 AM

Hi John,

You can also use an fs2 goto kit for your njp. I have a buddy that uses the kit with his em200, he is happy with it.

http://www.telescope-service.de/FS2/...html#takahashi

Regards
Brett

JohnG (John) · #16 08-12-2011, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by casstony

Something I've wondered about is can the surge jump accross power switch contacts even if the switch is turned off? Did any equipment get damaged that was plugged into a switched off power point John?

Unfortunately it was plugged in but the power points were off, the storm was so bad and came in so quickly that I could not get outside to the Observatory to pull the leads, the hail was intense. I think the mount was damaged by the surge going through the RS232 cable attached to the computer, don't think one can anticipate that.

Cheers

Liz · #17 08-12-2011, 12:01 PM

Very scary stuff!! I love a good thunder and lightning show, but as long as its 10 km away at least. When its close to the house, its terrifying!!

Thankgoodness for insurance, but still a pain to get it all up and going again, but glad you are Ok.

JohnG (John) · #18 08-12-2011, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bert

Hi John,

You can also use an fs2 goto kit for your njp. I have a buddy that uses the kit with his em200, he is happy with it.

http://www.telescope-service.de/FS2/...html#takahashi

Regards
Brett

Thanks Brett

It is in the hands of the insurance company now.

Cheers

Ric · #19 08-12-2011, 12:04 PM

Not good news at all John, glad to hear your ok though.

That was a massive storm the other week and we experienced a few strikes around us as well. Fortunately they were far enough away not to have any effects on our electricals.

I hope you are able to get your gear sorted out.

Karls48 (Karl) · #20 08-12-2011, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by casstony

Something I've wondered about is can the surge jump accross power switch contacts even if the switch is turned off? Did any equipment get damaged that was plugged into a switched off power point John?

Yes it can and it will. Depending on the distance from the strike it can jump couple meters or more. I have seen TV and stereo system completely destroyed by discharge that jumped out of power point at least two meters away. It was unpluged from the power point.