Back in my Uni days in first year chemistry I used a pipette to suck out concentrated hydrochloric acid from a reagant bottle. Unfortunately the volume of the acid in the bottle was less than the volume capacity of the pipette. As anyone knows using a pipette as soon as you start sucking in air instead of fluid, the fluid will surge.
As a result I got a mouthful of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Fortunately I didn't swallow it but the inside of my mouth was badly burnt and my teeth were never as white as that.
The worst case scenario it may have qualified me for a Darwin award....
When I was younger I destroyed my folks garage in one big hydrogen blast.
I had made about 2 cubic meters of hydrogen.
I won't explain how due to safety concerns.
Nothing compared to some of the others, but I will share anyway...
Got my EQ5PRO out for first light with a friend. Spent 2 hrs wondering why it kept pointing the wrong way an insisted on guide stars below the horizon.
After we gave up and went come, realised controller was set to 33N not 33S
My Dad has a great D'oh moment...long before D'oh was around.
He was employed as a lab junior at ICI many many years ago when doing his Chemical engineering degree (Syd).
Anyway he was told to clean up the lab...so he did so & poured out a yucky looking beaker full of brownish liquid down the sink (as they did in those days...1950's).
Anyway...it turns out it was a "Platinum in suspension" liquid...quite alot I am lead to believe.
He was fired...but laughs about it now days. The supervising chemist should have told him what not to throw!
When I was younger I destroyed my folks garage in one big hydrogen blast.
I had made about 2 cubic meters of hydrogen.
I won't explain how due to safety concerns.
holy crap!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidU
My 150mm refractor hit's concrete !
Even bigger HOLY CRAP!!!
Well, I got me own story.... I was trying to collimate my M500 Mak at 3am the other day (no success) with the EQ5 setup in alt-az mode. Then suddenly the scope spins 180º in altitude at breakneck speed almost catapulting my 8mm Vixen LWV to the concrete. THe diagnal and EP ended up facing the concrete during this episode, with teh tube assembly upside down, but luckily I had both tightened up as good as I could get it.
I just had a really big D'OH! Literally an hour ago.
Put up a new medicine cabinet in the ensuite. Quite happy with the result...
Until wife went to go to the toilet but couldn't figure out why the sliding door wouldn't close. It's a cavity sliding door and I had screwed through it as well when I hung the cabinet. Gaargh!!!
and and all at the same time!
PS - my father is a carpenter. I rang him to tell him about it and I think he is still laughing his ass off!
I just had a really big D'OH! Literally an hour ago.
Put up a new medicine cabinet in the ensuite. Quite happy with the result...
Until wife went to go to the toilet but couldn't figure out why the sliding door wouldn't close. It's a cavity sliding door and I had screwed through it as well when I hung the cabinet. Gaargh!!!
and and all at the same time!
PS - my father is a carpenter. I rang him to tell him about it and I think he is still laughing his ass off!
I just had a really big D'OH! Literally an hour ago.
Put up a new medicine cabinet in the ensuite. Quite happy with the result...
Until wife went to go to the toilet but couldn't figure out why the sliding door wouldn't close. It's a cavity sliding door and I had screwed through it as well when I hung the cabinet. Gaargh!!!
and and all at the same time!
PS - my father is a carpenter. I rang him to tell him about it and I think he is still laughing his ass off!
I can tell one about someone we know who is really accident prone who borrowed his parents 4WD and Sailing boat all his friends were having bets as to how long it would be before he damaged the boat well Pam said he would not even get into the water. Well on the way to the Ramp he rolled the whole rig wrote the whole lot off. He walked away with out any injury as usual he never hurts himself only people silly enough to get to close. Another one was when he was pro fishing and fell out of his tinny and it started circling so he decided to catch it he got in front of the boat and it hit him and he saw the prop go the full length of his body just missing him.
Caught a cable with the tip of my shoe, flinging my laptop off a table onto paving bricks. Didn't pull on any of the cables going to the mount or camera, phew. Landed right on the expresscard serial adaptor, mashed it up good. Absorbed the impact nicely, no damage to the laptop!
The adaptor has an RJ45 socket, spent ages bending the pins back into shape with tweezers and it still works. I take a bit more care organising my cable management now.
I'd recently purchased a 750mm 6" Newtonian on an EQ mount. The mount's gears began to grind soon after setting up. I took the mount back to the store twice - the replacement had the same issue. The third seemed ok. Leaving the store, I got booked for parking in a no standing zone, and when I got home, I noticed the pin which locks the angle was jammed (luckily at the right elevation for Sydney - around 34 degrees). I was so upset about the parking ticket and having to return twice before, I let it slide. Hope to one day be able to fix the pin myself.
Well...just got one now... Got of my butt and setup for once. All ready, C11/Hyperstar, guiding waiting for dark so just focusing the QHY8 now... focusing...focusing.... man! I can't be that far out?!... focusing ... focusing ... SCT mirror bottoms out, still not focused? Forgot one spacer (nosepiece) on the camera before the hyperstar . Of course that means powering off evrything, dewshield off, disconnecting QHY8, drying it, etc...
I'v got into a habit of taking my truss tube outside well before I will use it. Instead of taking everything outside, I just rest the truss tube horizontally on an old vinyl 3 seat couch in the back porch. This couch is lined up east/west, not a problem at all till a couple of days ago. The setting sun shone through the trusses side onto the mirror and started melting a small hole in the arm rest of the couch.
Luckily I was near by and smelt the result.
Should have known better.
Well, good news ! IIS member brought around a 150mm x 1200 Achro this morning. Back in biz.He drove down from NSW with it, awesome.
Big thanks to John Guy, lovely fella and nice to meet him.
My biggest doh moment was marvelling at a new nebula I accidentally found one night. I spent a few minutes checking it out then showed it to my friends. Then I noticed it followed me as I moved the scope around.
I looked into the tube... It wasn't a nebula, it was a hair on the mirror!
and 
and 
all at the same time!
Got of my butt and setup for once. All ready, C11/Hyperstar, guiding waiting for dark so just focusing the QHY8 now... focusing...focusing.... man! I can't be that far out?!... focusing ... focusing ... SCT mirror bottoms out, still not focused? Forgot one spacer (nosepiece) on the camera before the hyperstar 
