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That one time I spent 45 minutes trying to align my telescope only to find out the battery was dead
Last Wednesday I had the worst luck. Got my Dobsonian all set up in the backyard, Saturn was right there in the sky. Spent forever tweaking the finder scope, getting frustrated because nothing lined up. Turns out the red dot finder ran out of battery. By the time I swapped it, clouds rolled in from nowhere. Haven't had a clear night since. Anyone else have a night where the setup just fights you the whole way?
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spencer78211d ago
Last spring I had a similar night with my 8 inch SCT. The power switch was set to off, took me a solid 20 minutes of frustration before I realized. I started keeping a little checklist taped to the inside of my case lid. Battery check, finder alignment, power switch, all that stuff. It feels dumb but it saved me more than once. Also I bought a rechargeable power bank with a red light on it so I can see what I'm doing without ruining my night vision. Never going back to regular batteries for my finder.
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I actually kind of love nights like that though. Yeah it's frustrating in the moment, but there's something almost cozy about battling the equipment and having the universe laugh at you. Plus now you'll never forget to check that battery again, so it's a win in the long run even if it stung that night.
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mark43612d ago
Feel your pain man. @torres.thea says they love those nights but I bet they never spent a full hour trying to figure out why their goto mount kept slewing into a tree haha. I finally gave up and just hand tracked Jupiter with a shaky tripod and a cold beer. Ended up getting a decent enough view of the bands but the neighbors probably thought I was wrestling a ghost.
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