Last night I decided to have a nice long observing session. It was clear, so I took out my stuff, fine tuned the polar alignment, and got everything ready. I invited the neighbors over to "look at Saturn".

First of all, it took me a while to find Saturn. Then I realized that my finderscope was totally misaligned, so I used my Telrad. I found it, but the bad seeing made it very mushy. You could see the rings (of course) and briefly glimpse the Cassini and cloud belts, so it wasn't too bad.

Then I tried to start up Autostar. I entered the date and time, and then tried to align. It tried "slewing" to Arcturus. But the RA drive did not kick in, and the dec. drive was just spinning around, tangling the cord. So I quickly shut off the power and tried again. This time I stopped it from slewing to Arcturus, so it slewed to Capella instead. The dec. drive stopped, but then I guess the computer was a slow thinker because it took about five minutes for the RA drive to kick in, and then it said "motor failure." I tried pressing buttons and all that happened was that it went "testing motors" and then went back to "motor failure."

By this time the neighbors were over. I shut of the computer and manually slewed to Saturn for them. Then I realized that it was 8:30, almost time to shoot the -8 mag. Iridium 81 flare that I happened to notice when checking Heavens above. I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera and tripod. Then I started taking practice exposures of where the flare was. It was right between Canes Venatici and the Coma Cluster, making a nice frame in a 50mm lens, according to Stellarium and Heavens Above. But it wasn't properly dark yet so I had to guess where they were.

My guess was about 10 degrees too far to the right, unfortunately. I told my friend to watch the sky where the camera was pointing. Then all of a sudden, right on time, he pointed out a very bright flare. I franticly repositioned my camera as the next, even brighter flare happened. But I only caught the tail end of it, and bumped the camera in the process. Well, at least it was cool to look at. But then when quickly going over my "test" images, I noticed the Coma Cluster in one of them to the lower left, and if I had only noticed that before I could have re-framed the shot. I told my friend (the rest of the neighbors had already left by now) to look at Saturn while I vent. It was a lot like the night before; when photographing a thunderstorm I let go of the shutter a split second before a huge cloud-to-ground textbook arc would have went all the way through the frame. And also how I repositioned the camera to get more sky after a lighting bolt got cut off. I didn't get any good shots that night, either.

Well, now it was almost dark so I might as well observe. Once again failing to start up Autostar properly, I had to resort to manual pointing. So I tried to find M81 and M82 for my friend, but it is tough when your Telrad is in a very awkward position. So instead I found M51 for the first time. I saw a lot of detail, even hints of structure, which was great, but it was really no showcase object compared to M81 and M82.

I continued to try a few times at getting Autostar to work, but with no avail.

Then I noticed that my pocket was feeling very warm. Burning hot, in fact. I then realized my laser pointer was in there. I set it aside, hoping that it wouldn't explode or leak battery acid.

There was a possibility it was still business hours in California, so I tried calling Meade, but they weren't open, so I went back to the scope. Basically the only things I recall looking at were stars, Saturn, the Beehive, and the Whirlpool. Most of the time I was just joking with my friend about how everything was going wrong, and how telescopes with minds of there own probably weren't a good idea.

When he left, I tried to skip alignment and just turn Sidereal on so I could shoot M51, but I wasn't even able to do that.

My laser pointer did not explode, but it killed a couple of fresh AAA batteries.

The worst part is that after Saturday, it will be nothing but overcast and rain for at least a week.

Attached Images

iridium81failure.jpg (87.5 KB, 14 views)

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You can't really tell the difference between drunken rambling and sober blogging.

Hi Siguy

I am sorry your night went that way
Isnt it always the way, the minute you invite people to come and look, the equipment goes crazy, things like this always happen to me as well.
I hope the laser didn't burn your leg.
Did you ever get in touch with meade?

I am all set to finally build my scope transporter and build my street light shield, but of course, it is forecast for clouds again, I think it is just not meant for me to do anything with my scope

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“There's no denying the public's appetite for cosmic discovery.” ~ Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Ah, a Murphy session! My condolences.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

And to think I complain long and loud every time it clouds up 30 seconds after I set up.

On the plus side you can't have a worse night.

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Beer, the cause of and solution to, all lifes problems

At least you didn't set up and then forget that the sprinklers were due to come on at about the same time!!! This happened to me with my Lightbridge, I had only used it once but I still hadn't managed to get the red dot finder aligned to the scope. I had been playing around with the screws on the finder when the sprinklers came on!!!! I had to quickly grab the scope and practically 'run' inside (and Lightbridges are not 'light'!!) before it got wet! Worse still, I had managed to put the base right ON TOP of one of the sprinklers!! (reticulation ones that are buried beneath the lawn). Luckily, I was able to get it all inside with only minimal water on the bottom of the base.

Maybe you should get a Lightbridge - no computers that can malfunction and no drives lol.

Tonight was hopefully my Murphy session.

I set up my ETX hoping to get a webcam shot of Saturn. Now either my laptop is afraid of the dark or it doesnt like meade autostar as it kept locking up the program. After a few threats involving a hammer the three of us settled down to play "Hunt the planet".

I'd get Saturn smack dab in the middle of my 5mm ep, syncronise, remove the ep put the web cam in and look at a blank screen. I'd slowly focus all the way out, I'd slowly focus all the way in. Nada. Remove the web cam put back in the ep only to discover that Saturn wasnt there. Re-center etc etc, still nothing. I tried this four times, same thing every time. I reset the scope from scratch with same result.

Then I noticed my cat. He was rubbing up against the tripod.

Now in a cat free zone I tried again only for the program to freeze up again.

Time to give up as Saturn was disappearing behind a house.

Drag out the lightbridge and try out my new 8mm hyperion ep that just arrived this morning. I set up the scope and dropped my laser coliminator ... onto flagstones.

I pick it up expecting it never to work again but I turned it on and it works. I start coliminating and I was surprised to see that it was so far out. (yes I know NOW) Anyway fiddly bits done I put in the new ep and swing the scope round to Arcturus. Well frankly it was awful. I checked the trusses, they were ok, so I rechecked the colimination. Yes you guessed it, way out. At that point the batteries died.

I take it inside to change batteries. I unscrew the bottom and bits fall out. The fall had jarred loose the laser from its housing.

I stiffle a scream and try to manually coliminate the scope. I finally get it to a semi reasonable state, look up to see the clouds rolling in.

I know when I'm beaten. I take the top half off the lightbridge grab my gear and take it inside. I come back out for the bottom half to find next doors cat sitting in it. Theres muddy cat prints all over my mirror.

I think I'll take up a new hobby. Anyone want to buy a pair of mittens that I've made? 100% genuine cat hair

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Beer, the cause of and solution to, all lifes problems