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  #21  
Old 25-07-2022, 02:11 PM
ausastronomer (John Bambury)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hamishbarker View Post
What an awful and expensive experience!

what happened to the two parts? Were they binned, or tested for residual deformation of the figure after the accident? It might have been possible to salvage two circa 15" f9 off-axis paraboloids cored from the two pieces. Such mirrors could make for two sizable, unobstructed scopes with no spider/secondary diffraction. A giant binoscope, or make one and sell one.
Hi Hamish,

It was one of our 3RF / Ozsky Scopes. We have quite a few other scopes still fully operational 2 x 25"/F5's, 2 x 20" / F5's, 5 x 18"/F4.5's, 14"/F4.5, 12"/F5 Binocular Telescope and a pair of 25 x 150 Fujinon Binoculars on a motorised Star Chair.

At the moment the scope, along, with it's 2 piece mirror is sitting in one of the volunteers garages. The scope was about 15 years old. The problem is it's now a bit of a dinosaur. Most scopes of this aperture are now much faster than F4.6, so it's not worth getting a new mirror for that scope, which essentially makes the scope structure obsolete as well. It then makes it a $60k exercise to get a new 30" scope in the F3 to F4 range. On top of that, we are all getting older and our scopes are getting heavier by the day. None of us are all that keen to take on the responsibility of storing and transporting a 30" scope. We are all pretty happy with the scopes we have custody and control of at the moment and the 25" scopes are really all that we want to deal with as we get older. The mirror was pretty decent but not exceptional. James Mulherin refigured the mirror to F4.6 from a 30"/f5 mirror that was originally made by Vaughan Parsons at Intermountain Optics. It was James Mulherin's 1st go at a mirror over 25". It's not even worth contemplating 2 sub aperture mirrors from it, as we would have no use for those scopes anyway, which would both require new scope structures.

Cheers
John B
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  #22  
Old 17-08-2022, 04:29 PM
TeamG (Glenn)
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Not using my star adventurer for two years because I didn't realise that for ultra wide going hard core on PA isn't really needed
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  #23  
Old 06-10-2022, 12:45 PM
michael_qrt (Michael)
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Location: Central Coast, NSW
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In the spirit of the OP, mine is heading out for a week camping trip under dark skies and forgetting my eyepieces... Not a specific astro trip and no equipment destruction but painful nonetheless. At least the naked eye views were incredible!
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  #24  
Old 02-05-2023, 03:54 PM
aandk
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Unable to use my new gear because it's constantly cloudy
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  #25  
Old 03-05-2023, 07:03 AM
LonelySpoon (Neville)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aandk View Post
Unable to use my new gear because it's constantly cloudy
That's just everyday astronomy...

The more expensive / exotic, the more cloud and rain.

The disaster will come when you get the clear, moonless night, set everything up then find that you have overwhelming ASCOM conflicts that weren't there during daylight hours, software updates, wifi failure, etc.

Me 2 weeks ago.

Oh, and my back went so I couldn't climb up to open the dome shutters...
(the shutter motor had already failed)

Neville
LSO
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  #26  
Old 06-05-2023, 12:50 PM
FrancoRodriguez (Franco)
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Rewiring a 12V supply to a n Eq6r mount. They used the wrong colour cabling during production and I reversed polarity unknowingly. Skywatcher doesn't even install a $1 Schottky protective diode in their products. Cooked the mount and made it smell like popcorn. I'll never not use a voltmeter again
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  #27  
Old 07-05-2023, 06:33 AM
LonelySpoon (Neville)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FrancoRodriguez View Post
Rewiring a 12V supply to a n Eq6r mount. They used the wrong colour cabling during production and I reversed polarity unknowingly. Skywatcher doesn't even install a $1 Schottky protective diode in their products. Cooked the mount and made it smell like popcorn. I'll never not use a voltmeter again
Ouch!
That lets out the magic blue smoke!

If this was recently Tasco can help.

I might have an old eq8 board somewhere too.

Neville
LSO
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  #28  
Old 08-05-2023, 01:07 AM
TwistedRider (Drew)
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Worst experience so far:Being led up the garden path repeatedly with offers of assistance. Resigned to now going trial and error to get anywhere with astrophotography.

Worst "learning" experience: travels 2 hours, setup and align for an evening of visual viewing only to find I left the eyepieces at home. They are now the 1st box to get packed.
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  #29  
Old 08-05-2023, 06:49 AM
Finbar (Barry)
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1st episode.So glad to have a promising evening ahead, set up the tripod for the CPC 1100, fetched the beastie (about 30kg) and misstepped on the lower of two shallow steps. On the way down, knowing nothing could stop us, steeled self to hear shattering. The beastie took out a planter box frame, then the bottom of the mount hit the concrete path, I hit it, and we landed in the garden, me on the cat. No sound of breaking, but a rib so sore I thought it was cracked, and took weeks to stop hurting. Cat had minor scratches and dinged vent cover; optics fine, collimation fine.

2nd episode. Having travelled the 7 hours to Richmond (Qld) for star gazing holiday, discovered late Friday morning on setting up the AZEQ6 in the backyard to do some field of view measurements that I had the power cable for the CPC! Minor meltdown followed. Search online, and Testar had what I needed but realised even express post would not help as the best new moon nights would pass. Made cut lunch, drove home, overnighted, left before dawn and returned to holiday home by lunchtime Saturday. Note to self: make check lists.
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  #30  
Old 23-06-2023, 04:04 PM
besmirched (Pete)
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Noob here. Not so long ago I forgot that PHD2 had to settle or train its tracking before working. As a result, I spent too much time trying to fix something that wasn't broken.
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  #31  
Old 24-06-2023, 07:36 AM
LonelySpoon (Neville)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by besmirched View Post
Noob here. Not so long ago I forgot that PHD2 had to settle or train its tracking before working. As a result, I spent too much time trying to fix something that wasn't broken.
Yes, coming to grips with the needs of up to 8 programs at once can take some time.

Even when experienced:
I routinely mess up NINA trying to get it to slew the scope to a target AND rotate the dome at the same time. It slews the scope, starts a centering exposure- of the inside of the dome...
All my fault for getting settings wrong on startup.

Good luck with your nights!


Neville
LSO
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  #32  
Old 24-06-2023, 10:53 AM
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Stonius (Markus)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer View Post
A 2 piece 30"/F4.6 OMI mirror. The mirror split into 2 equal pieces after the trailer it was being transported in hit a pothole on a dirt road. There was a very minor chip on the back of the mirror, which was never going to be a problem but the mirror split right where the chip was.

That was a $30,000 plus mirror, in a $60,000 plus SDM Telescope.

Owch, John, I felt that one! I can't even imagine...damn.
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  #33  
Old 24-06-2023, 07:44 PM
besmirched (Pete)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LonelySpoon View Post
Yes, coming to grips with the needs of up to 8 programs at once can take some time.
LSO
True. I started with Astroberry and I didn't get anywhere until I dumped that for NINA.

Thanks for the encouragement. I ordered a few doodads this week to hopefully make AP a bit easier.

Clear skies.
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  #34  
Old 25-06-2023, 01:56 PM
m11 (Mel)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TwistedRider View Post
Worst experience so far:Being led up the garden path repeatedly with offers of assistance. Resigned to now going trial and error to get anywhere with astrophotography.

Worst "learning" experience: travels 2 hours, setup and align for an evening of visual viewing only to find I left the eyepieces at home. They are now the 1st box to get packed.
Hi Drew,

Its been awhile since we last touched base.

I hope things are progressing better now? Sounds like you have gone more to astrophotography these days?

Mel
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  #35  
Old 14-08-2023, 09:33 AM
skldvenom (Stephen)
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Dropped a 5kg counterweight on my foot nice bruise no bones broken.
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  #36  
Old 14-08-2023, 03:07 PM
gb44 (Glenn)
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Being at a star party and ready to enjoy observing only to be overwhelmed by smoke from building nearby.

GlennB
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