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Has anyone ever…

M101 Supernova Messier Objects Galaxy Deep Sky
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Daniel Cimbora avatar
Daniel Cimbora avatar
I did something kind of dumb, but also it’s kind of funny so I thought I’d share. 

A little while ago, I saw a nice image in my feed of a supernova in M101. The post indicated it had been discovered a couple of days before, and might be getting quite a bit brighter than its current magnitude nine.  Cool, I thought, my first opportunity to shoot a supernova!

So I shot about six hours of LRGB, anxiously awaited the downloads, and processed the image.

Nothing.

I went back to the original post, and only then realized it was a few years old. It had been bumped into my feed because somebody liked it, not because it was new.

Anyone else ever make this bonehead mistake?

LOL, Dan
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Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
not me, I think because I'm not particularly interested in extragalactic supernovae

but I know what bonehead mistake we have all made at one point:

trying astrophotography with the dust cap on! "why doesn't my image platesolve? where are the stars?" DUH! YOU FORGOT TO REMOVE THE CAP. 
Alex Nicholas avatar
Alex Nicholas avatar
Ever sunk a 7h fully automated nights worth of imaging into a dataset with a bahtinov mask hanging off the front of your scope?

#BoneHead
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Quinn Groessl avatar
Quinn Groessl avatar
Completely different but similar, a local restaurants facebook page had a giveaway back in 2011 and it seems like once a year since then people see it and think it's current so they start sharing it around again. The restaurant doesn't care cause it's free advertising and eventually someone points out how old it is.
TiffsAndAstro avatar
TiffsAndAstro avatar
Oscar:
not me, I think because I'm not particularly interested in extragalactic supernovae

but I know what bonehead mistake we have all made at one point:

trying astrophotography with the dust cap on! "why doesn't my image platesolve? where are the stars?" DUH! YOU FORGOT TO REMOVE THE CAP. 

*** Type your reply here **
I still do this about once every three sessions
ScottF avatar
ScottF avatar
Alex Nicholas:
Ever sunk a 7h fully automated nights worth of imaging into a dataset with a bahtinov mask hanging off the front of your scope?

#BoneHead

I am embarrassed to admit I have done this more than once. I caught it after an hour or two, but still, very frustrating. lol
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Astrophotography is full of them or as I like to say, "there's a million ways to F up"
AstroÅmazer avatar
AstroÅmazer avatar
On a recent session on M101, my filter drawer was obscured by the cables. So while changing to Ha, I rotated it to a new convenient position thinking I was going to be less than 10 degrees off. Instead of rotating 170+ degrees, I rotated about 100-110 degrees in the dark. Didn't realize untill I stacked and registered the data. Now have quarter the FoV on an already small 585 sensor (~1750x1500 is usable from 3840x2160).

Other mistakes I have made… Forgotten to turn on the dew heater. 🤦
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Jeff Bennett avatar
Jeff Bennett avatar
On yea, Ive done every stupid thing possible at least once.  But that's how I learn.  How about making a mistake, writing it down to make sure you don't do it again and then loosing the note two days later and forgetting you made the same mistake already!
Joe Linington avatar
Joe Linington avatar
Last night I forgot to turn on the camera dew heater. Lost most of the nights images. Way to humid.
Mark Fox avatar
Mark Fox avatar
My favorite, often repeated boneheaded issue is keeping the ASIAir in Focus mode when proceeding to polar align.  I have asked more than once "why doesn't this thing platesolve?"… followed by "must be another failed ZWO update" (sorry, that's a different forum) before realizing my error.  And, it has happened both without and WITH the Baht mask in place.
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Daniel Cimbora avatar
Daniel Cimbora avatar
Mark Fox:
My favorite, often repeated boneheaded issue is keeping the ASIAir in Focus mode when proceeding to polar align.  I have asked more than once "why doesn't this thing platesolve?"... followed by "must be another failed ZWO update" (sorry, that's a different forum) before realizing my error.  And, it has happened both without and WITH the Baht mask in place.

Lol

“CBPS” — Compound Bonehead Procedure Syndrome
Steve avatar
Steve avatar
After a night imaging with my refractor, my data had terrible star shapes.  I was worried all day that I had pinched optics, until I thought to look under the cap.  Sometime early in the night, a very large leaf had blown into the dew shield.
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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
Steve:
After a night imaging with my refractor, my data had terrible star shapes.  I was worried all day that I had pinched optics, until I thought to look under the cap.  Sometime early in the night, a very large leaf had blown into the dew shield.

I had a similar incident when a chunk of tree trash blew down the tube if my Newtonian and plastered itself onto the primary. Funny thing was, the image was pretty good until I noticed the wonky diffraction patterns. It was a good reminder not to worry too much about a bit of dust or a bug or two!
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Luigi Ferrari avatar
Luigi Ferrari avatar
Mi è capitato di sbattere l’astrocamera contro una porta, portando il Newton sul balcone, tutto sembrava a posto… la sera cercando di acquisire le immagini mi sono reso conto che non si vedeva  nemmeno una stella, molto preoccupato di aver rotto il 294 MC pro 😬, mi sono reso conto dopo mezz'ora che il treno ottico (camera, tubi e lente coma) era scivolato molto dentro il focheggiatore… 😁
AstroÅmazer avatar
AstroÅmazer avatar
Luigi Ferrari:
Mi è capitato di sbattere l’astrocamera contro una porta, portando il Newton sul balcone, tutto sembrava a posto... la sera cercando di acquisire le immagini mi sono reso conto che non si vedeva  nemmeno una stella, molto preoccupato di aver rotto il 294 MC pro 😬, mi sono reso conto dopo mezz'ora che il treno ottico (camera, tubi e lente coma) era scivolato molto dentro il focheggiatore... 😁

Have done that before but not to the extent that the imaging train shifted. But yes have had loose wires etc.
Ostfriesentee avatar
Ostfriesentee avatar
Yesterday, wonderful day, potential clear skies. I decided to go out shooting. I built my setup, tripod, mount, polar alignment. Everything was fine. Then I realised, I forgot my camera… smile
Michael Stolz avatar
Michael Stolz avatar
Has anyone ever been so absorbed by testing new equipment, that they forgot very basic things that then endangered the whole setup?

My biggest mistake (so far) has been being so enthralled by installing and testing my latest new toy, a camera for polar alignment, on my EQ6 with a C11 loaded, that I pressed on slew after an exceptionally fantastic polar alignment, only to realize that I haven't attached the counterweightsmile… and I watched the C11 swing and then rush around, and my guiding scope hitting the tripod and being ripped off…. 

Suffice it to say I didn't do any Astronomy anymore that night.smile

The C11 was fine, by the way. All the energy went into the destruction of the ASI120MM guiding camera, luckily, and the holder of the guiding scope.
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