worst observation night ever!!

oh what a crap night, i have not taken my scope out for nearly 6months now. And tonight i was playing with Steallrium and noticed that it might be possible to see m31 or m32! so i got the scope from under the bed, all the equipment / laptops , tables, food etc..

drive 1hr to my obsv spot, picked my little brother on the way.

arrived there, spent about 30min setting up.

go to setup my scope and make a big mess of it, forgot entirley how it all went together, got the manual out and figured it out after nearly a hr hahaha then THEN the FREAKIN finderscope red pointer light didnt work!!!:mad 2:


looks like the batteries are dead, tried to have a observation without a finderscope and was just completly frustrating , after 20min , packed up and went home!!

ooh anyone had any worse than this!?

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

Mmmmmm yes

we all have nights like that Ash

you are not alone

but you have to remember to check before you go

spare batteries
stubbie holder
eyepiece case
spare stubbie holder
hair dryer
another stubbie holder in case mates turn up
chair
table
better put the scope in too
did i mention to take a stubbie holder

and i will guarantee if you remember to take all the stubbie holders
you will forget the bloody BEER

geoff

[Deeno]

Started drift aligning at 7.30 and I'm STILL AT IT!!!
'Least I'm going to have a good look at Orion

[Ian Robinson]

I dropped my old CG5 with the guidescope and an old camera on it when I turned my ankle going down the back stairs one night.... did not do the camera and lens on it much good ,as I grabbed the handrail and let go of the mount which went bang bang several times until hit the concrete foot path.
Better it than me.

[astro_nutt]

Having to chase one very angry huntsman out of the tube of my 8" dob a few years back on a night of near perfect conditions!!!

[deadsimple (Ash)]

Originally Posted by Lyinxz

looks like the batteries are dead, tried to have a observation without a finderscope and was just completly frustrating , after 20min , packed up and went home!!

That's some pretty bad luck. Might be good to rehearse at home before travelling far

Originally Posted by Lyinxz

ooh anyone had any worse than this!?

Last night as well: planned well in advance - let my scope cool for 3 hours and FINALLY when I go to observe, I end up dropping the finder scope cap 1 metre straight onto the primary mirror. (see 'Equipment' forum for details ) .. ended up freaking out trying to fix the mess. All good in the end but ended up getting little to no actual observing done.

Sometimes you just have to give up for the night and try again when the luck is better.

[Craig.a.c (Craig)]

Originally Posted by astro_nutt

Having to chase one very angry huntsman out of the tube of my 8" dob a few years back on a night of near perfect conditions!!!

I would have left it there and cut my loses. I hate spiders, love snakes though.

I took my old telescope out one night not long after I got it. Put it in the car along with the star charts only to realise I had left my eyepieces at home.

[sheeny (Al)]

I've had a few disasterous nights!

One... while packing the truck with the scope to go observing, I got interrupted... Finally, I got all packed up and drove 22ks out to my dark sky site, went to set up... no tripod!:lo l:

On numerous occasions I've set up just in time for the clouds to roll in... sometimes they really like to play with my sanity and wait until I'm drift aligned or nearly drift aligned before they roll in... then if they really want to wind me up, they clear off after I've packed up...

On another occasion it was very cold and the temperature was dropping very quickly. I had the scope set up with my back to it, getting out my guiding EP to start drift aligning, and I heard a loud "crack"... looked at the scope but couldn't see anything wrong... I spent 4 to 5 hours troubleshooting why I couldn't drift align... eventually gave up in disgust. When packing up I found the centre bolt for the mount was loose! My theory was that the "crack" I heard was thermal stresses released the tension on the centre bolt which perhaps wasn't done up properly but bound in the thread so it felt tight...

Astronomy is one of those hobbies that pushes boundaries... the limit of seeing, transparency, resolution, patience, persistence, resistance to cold...

Al.

[leon]

I had one some time ago, when I used to do visual stuff, I couldn't figure out why I was not able to see anything, just total black.

Finally after checking the scope from head to tail, and found all was well, so what is the problem, anyway I said some choice words and packed it away.

I then became apparent that in the darkness I had left the black plastic dust cap on the end of the EP and shoved it into the diagonal, so the problem was not obvious until I actually took out the EP.

Now I'm not going to tell you about the other stuff Iv'e done, but I'm sure we have all been there at some stage.

Leon

[Terry B]

Not astronomy but I remember years ago driving about an hour across the city to go windsurfing with a fantastic wind blowing to find when I got there that I had left a small but vital bit of equipment at home. I then watch the others sail for a while and return home very frustrated.

[WadeH (Wade)]

Totally missed out on the 2005 occulation of Jupiter because the WA almanac used a different time (geocentric) to local or UT, but did not mention it. Has since been fixed, but......

Lesson, check a number of sources before something important!

well at least its good to know , i am not alone!

hahaha happy observing guys!

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by Lyinxz

..... And tonight i was playing with Steallrium and noticed that it might be possible to see m31 or m32! ...........

Good News! They'll be there tomorrow night, and the night after that, and after that and next week......


Thank goodness!

[Ian Robinson]

Originally Posted by Terry B

Not astronomy but I remember years ago driving about an hour across the city to go windsurfing with a fantastic wind blowing to find when I got there that I had left a small but vital bit of equipment at home. I then watch the others sail for a while and return home very frustrated.

Ha !!!

Try fishing for several hours to get enough livebaits for a night chasing the jewie only to find out when I had dragged the baits (swimming in about 40 litres of water and my 2 big jewie rods etc all the way up to the end of Nobbys Wall (a very long and hot walk which is actually all up hill (about half of it dragging the trolley through wind blown sand about a 1" thick)) only to find out I had left all by 6 oz snapper lead sitting on the bench at home....and there was no one else I could buy or borrow any sinkers big enough off on the wall that evening.

Miffed .... had to pack everything back up, turn around and head back to the car park , put everything back in the Pajero and onto it , and find a servo who had a few snapper lead (which cost a packet) and then by the time I was back at the car park , I discovered about 2/3 of yaccas were not looking very healthy despite the two pumps blowing stacks of bubbles, so I settled for fishing near the Pilot Station only for a Southerly Buster to show up about an hour after I'd lobbed out my first livey.... Doublely Miffed .....I was not destined to have good evening fishing that night and threw in the towel , and released the few yaccas that were still alive.

Often been blown off Nobbys by Southerly Busters showing up not long after I've arrived to fish (during the avo for snapper, or at night for jewie) in summer.

[Benny L (Ben)]

Originally Posted by astro_nutt

Having to chase one very angry huntsman out of the tube of my 8" dob a few years back on a night of near perfect conditions!!!

I found a dead bat behind the mirror in my dad's old newtonian..

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Lyinxz

oh what a crap night, i have not taken my scope out for nearly 6months now. And tonight i was playing with Steallrium and noticed that it might be possible to see m31 or m32! so i got the scope from under the bed, all the equipment / laptops , tables, food etc..

drive 1hr to my obsv spot, picked my little brother on the way.

arrived there, spent about 30min setting up.

go to setup my scope and make a big mess of it, forgot entirley how it all went together, got the manual out and figured it out after nearly a hr hahaha then THEN the FREAKIN finderscope red pointer light didnt work!!!:mad 2:


looks like the batteries are dead, tried to have a observation without a finderscope and was just completly frustrating , after 20min , packed up and went home!!

ooh anyone had any worse than this!?

Well try driving over a 1000Km one way, setup and find out your scope focuser is losing focus all the time, not perpendicular to the focal plane, the laptop dies and your power supply options quickly disappear, and you lose polar alignment constantly through sinking into the ground. Then your camera fails

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by Lyinxz

oh what a crap night, i have not taken my scope out for nearly 6months now. And tonight i was playing with Steallrium and noticed that it might be possible to see m31 or m32! so i got the scope from under the bed, all the equipment / laptops , tables, food etc..

drive 1hr to my obsv spot, picked my little brother on the way.

arrived there, spent about 30min setting up.

go to setup my scope and make a big mess of it, forgot entirley how it all went together, got the manual out and figured it out after nearly a hr hahaha then THEN the FREAKIN finderscope red pointer light didnt work!!!:mad 2:

looks like the batteries are dead, tried to have a observation without a finderscope and was just completly frustrating , after 20min , packed up and went home!!

ooh anyone had any worse than this!?

Oh!

I don't Know. If the OTA was still OK and the skies were clear you should have at least been able to see something.

I have been out to a dark location more than once. Beautiful clear skies and reasonable forecast. Set up at dusk. Got a beaut two star alignment and waited till the skies darkened. Well they darkened OK. Big black thunder clouds. No sky visible and then down comes the rain. Wait for two hours and then pack up because its never going to clear. Drive home for an hour. Get home, the sky clears to a brilliant stable view. Its too late to go out again.

Barry