Realized I was overstacking my telescope mount for 3 months

Took my 8" dob out to a dark spot near Lubbock last week and every star in the photo looked like a comma. Turns out I had the counterweight way off and the clutch too loose, never checked it after swapping eyepieces. Anyone else had a dumb basic setup mistake ruin a whole night of shots?

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1 Comment

grayh6010d ago

Is it just me, or do we all skip the boring setup steps until they bite us in the ass? That mount issue is exactly like forgetting to tighten the lug nuts on your spare tire, you only remember when the wheel wobbles. I've done the same thing with a camera tripod, thought the head was locked but it was drifting a hair every shot, and I blamed the star tracker for an hour. The truth is we get so wrapped up in the cool gear and settings that we forget the basics are the whole battle. It's a humbling hobby sometimes, but at least you caught it before you burned a whole season on bad data.