O The Horror, the Horror!

[Decimus (Richard)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

As others have said, it's very unlikely to be anything but only cosmetic damage. It will of course impact on the resale value of the instrument but it won't hurt its performance any.

Thanks, Steve. Mind you, I don't intend selling it - at least not any time soon, if ever

Cheers,
Richard

[Manav (Yugant)]

Hi Richard - If it makes you feel any better you arent the only one

My horror tale

Btw - Love the centurion outfit

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by Decimus

Thanks, Steve. Mind you, I don't intend selling it - at least not any time soon, if ever

Cheers,
Richard

then try to forget about it. The cosmetic damage is probably not of any practical significance - it takes a fair bit to do real optical damage to a telescope. https://astroanecdotes.com/2015/03/2...ting-incident/

[Decimus (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Manav

Hi Richard - If it makes you feel any better you arent the only one

My horror tale

Btw - Love the centurion outfit

Thanks, Yugant - your mishap was a lot worse than mine; I was appalled when I read it! And there was that other story of the screw on the Losmandy dovetail plate stopping the OTA from crashing to the ground...Wow...All sickening stuff.

Glad you like the armour - it's actually a very expensive piece of replica Roman armour (the only one in Australia, as far as I know). It is an almost identical replica (but in electroplated gold and silver on 18-gauge steel) of the breastplate on the statue of Augustus (Rome's first emperor) of Prima Porta now housed in the Vatican Museum. Take a look at the photos and compare the breastplates. I sometimes wore this for my students at college where I taught Roman Politics and History (Ancient Civilisations) until a few months ago, when I retired (see the Vatican original too).

Cheers,
Richard

[Decimus (Richard)]

Originally Posted by Shiraz

then try to forget about it. The cosmetic damage is probably not of any practical significance - it takes a fair bit to do real optical damage to a telescope. https://astroanecdotes.com/2015/03/2...ting-incident/

Great story, Ray! There's hope after all!

Cheers,
Richard

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Originally Posted by Shiraz

it takes a fair bit to do real optical damage to a telescope. https://astroanecdotes.com/2015/03/2...ting-incident/

Quite a story. And goes to show how naively honest scientists can be. I probably would have gone along with the "mirror was destroyed" or at least badly damaged story and insisted that the assailant should pay for repairs.

Roman soldier dude, don't worry about it. It's a little cosmetic vanity scratch that will not have any effect on the scope's performance. Think of it like a little scratch on the bonnet of a brand new Ferrari. The Ferrari will go, accelerate and go around corners as fast as before the bonnet got a scratch on it. It's purely cosmetic.

[skysurfer]

I would worry the same way when this occurs to my scope. The scar remains visible when you look at the objective. But it is indeed a very small scar and unnoticeable when observing visually or photographically, so it is only cosmetic.

Is the dust cap a metal (usually aluminum) disk ? Then you should indeed be careful.

[Decimus (Richard)]

Originally Posted by skysurfer

I would worry the same way when this occurs to my scope. The scar remains visible when you look at the objective. But it is indeed a very small scar and unnoticeable when observing visually or photographically, so it is only cosmetic.

Is the dust cap a metal (usually aluminum) disk ? Then you should indeed be careful.

Hi Skysurfer,
Yes, the dust cap is metal and feels heavy possibly aluminium. Why don't they make them out of plastic - strong. light, etc? Am still waiting for a clear sky! Thanks for the re-assurance.
Cheers,
Richard

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

You could just get / find / make one out of plastic. They don't make it out of plastic because that would look and feel cheap. But I don't think you'll be making the same mistake again; you'll always remove and set it down carefully from here on.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Originally Posted by Decimus

Hi Skysurfer,
Yes, the dust cap is metal and feels heavy possibly aluminium. Why don't they make them out of plastic - strong. light, etc? Am still waiting for a clear sky! Thanks for the re-assurance.
Cheers,
Richard

Plastic cap would allow infrared light into the scope - might not be an ideal scenario for astrophotography when taking dark frames with a camera that has no shutter