"Doh" astro moments... we all know you've had one!

[Gem (Grant)]

Ok, let's hear about everyone's "doh" astro moments.

Mine goes back to 1995, when I had the ol' dob out for a night of observing at the end of Wagga Wagga's runway (one of the world's busiest airports ). Great place for observing... however, I noticed intermittent lights in the sky. They were coming and going in all different locations. Not satellites (that was clear)... so what were they?? There was no noise either. Now I am a definite UFO sceptic but these were really bizarre! After an hour of scratching my head I went home... only to find out the next day that I was a couple of hundred metres from where they release weather balloons!!

[leon]

Yea Grant we have all been there at one stage.

I was setting up for imaging, and went through the usual procedure, you know check this, put in that and so on.

Well after a considerable amount of time I just gave up, do you think I could see anything through the guiding scope.

Came back in the morning to the observatory and had another look, yep you guessed it I had left the cap on the end of the one that you cant see, and wondered why nothing was visible through the scope.

Leon

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Gem

Ok, let's hear about everyone's "doh" astro moments.

Mine goes back to 1995, when I had the ol' dob out for a night of observing at the end of Wagga Wagga's runway (one of the world's busiest airports ). Great place for observing... however, I noticed intermittent lights in the sky. They were coming and going in all different locations. Not satellites (that was clear)... so what were they?? There was no noise either. Now I am a definite UFO sceptic but these were really bizarre! After an hour of scratching my head I went home... only to find out the next day that I was a couple of hundred metres from where they release weather balloons!!

Yeah, but were they releasing balloons at the time you were observing??. Most weather stations release balloons early in the morning and in the early afternoon, not at night. Any that were released in the afternoon would be long gone by the time you were around doing any observing.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Done the old cap over the scope trick a number of times. Also, absentmindedly forget to screw the moon filter into an ep', only to peek into it at a full and very blazing, Moon

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

started taking a series of pics with the batinov mask in place - wondered why the pics were all messed up

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by jenchris

started taking a series of pics with the batinov mask in place - wondered why the pics were all messed up

Yeah, but at least they'd all be in focus

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

2 hours setting up and 4 hours imaging with my 40D only to realize I had enbled 'Cfn 13' - "Allow shooting with no CF Card."
Can you guess what I forgot?

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I had set the scope up for a public viewing during the warmer months and people started appearing and asking what I was looking at. I had to say, "nothing at the moment, but when the Sun goes down I will just have to align it and I will be ready to go, come back around 8:30 or so".

Well, it started to get dark and people were standing around waiting for me to align the scope. I turned it on and slewed to my first target (Alpha Cen, lowish in the south west), the scope slewed over to where the Sun had just set! So I do the usual "have you tried turning it off and on again", it did the same thing. Then I realised I had swapped the declination and RA axis cables....doh! Swap them over and start again....what the! Still wrong, then I realised I had put the south leg facing west....double doh!

Last year I was again setting the scope up for a school viewing, got it all out (yes pointing the right way, with the right cables). Go to plug the power in....no cable from the battery to the mount...

[Ric]

"Doh" moments

Too many over the years to list here.

[astronut (John)]

This is going back approx 4 years. I had just taken over as president of The MAS (at our AGM) and my first duty was to present our speaker for the evening.
I was very nervous, and to gain the attention of the audience I picked up the first object within reach and began hitting it against the table in front of me.
I looked at our speaker whilst announcing her presentation and was met by a horrified look on her face........the object I was using as a gavel was her wireless mouse!!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Too many to list. A couple in no particular order.

• Forgot the bathinov mask on 20min subs in ha then went to bed.
• Swapped RA and DEC cable (fast drift in RA x1).
• Aligned the whole mount to the north at coonabarabran ( very fast drift in RA x2)
• Forgot counterweight shaft after a drive to Ilford (250km).
• Went to Crago withouth the tripod as my kid points out while driving in the field (40km).

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Happend a few years back, Walked outside to have look at saturn and my scope was gone, must remember to take it out of the shed first

[AstralTraveller (David)]

I travel to observe and so over the years have managed to forget just about every item at least once. I can't actually recall forgetting the OTA but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. I know I've forgotten the eyepieces, saddle strap, counterweights, slow motion controls, warm clothes etc. The last time was the tripod about 5 years ago.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Set up on a beautiful clear still night. Spent a couple of hours getting frustrated by mushy images, defocused stars looked like they were boiling. Checked and rechecked collimation but naked eye view were telling me that seeing should be good!
Finally realised I had plugged the heater cable for my secondary which normally runs at 10% into a 100% oulet and the mirror holder was almost too hot to touch. All the convectiom was simply ruining the seeing!
Took another hour to cool down so I could start doing some observing.

Malcolm

[DavidU (Dave)]

Dropping my 150mm refractor onto concrete was a good one (not)
plenty of ones here...........
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...light=concrete

[Paul Haese]

Took the counter weights off a mount that had a very heavy ATMEd scope on it. I thought I had completely locked down the locks and drive. As I bent over I saw something flashing toward me out the corner of my eye. I turned my head away and was clipped by the 2' counter weight bar. It Tee'd me off and I flew backward nearly 6 feet. I initially thought I had a skull fracture and went to the hospital; luckily I was ok but I bore the lump on my temple for nearly 3 weeks. One of the few times I thought this hobby could kill me. Won't be doing that again.

[leon]

Graeme that is a corker mate, laughed myself silly, and who said Astronomy wasn't and interesting hobby, good stuff guys.

Leon

[luigi]

I took my binos pointed to a star and it was a nice double, I let the others see it, they were amazed.
Then hoped a little to the left and found another double, again my friends were deligthed.
I then noticed all the stars were doubles...
And yes, my daughter had dropped my binos earlier....

[Mliss (Mel)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Took the counter weights off a mount that had a very heavy ATMEd scope on it. I thought I had completely locked down the locks and drive. As I bent over I saw something flashing toward me out the corner of my eye. I turned my head away and was clipped by the 2' counter weight bar. It Tee'd me off and I flew backward nearly 6 feet. I initially thought I had a skull fracture and went to the hospital; luckily I was ok but I bore the lump on my temple for nearly 3 weeks. One of the few times I thought this hobby could kill me. Won't be doing that again.

glad you're ok Paul (aside from that spontaneous twitch ).

what a story!