Has anyone ever had this terrible of a night?

Yes, actually that same night in a different place it was taking me 65 minutes and multiple attempts to PA with 3 points (usually: < 5) with errors of 2 and 3 degrees and the tiniest touch of the knobs sending the error from -1 to +3 or from +2 to -2 (degrees).

No idea what was happening, after the tenth attempt or so it just sort of came to its senses and behaved normally and I was able to PA easily. Fourty minutes later: clouds

​​​​

cheers,

Dimitris
​​​​​​

Not as bad as you, however one of my mount legs totally collapsed once when I was callibrating it on a smooth wooden floor.   The whole assembly landed on top of me thankfully and nothing got broken.

My first 1 1/2 years went like that almost continually. This also included 3 replacements cameras with oil on the sensor window and various equipment problems the worst being my old laptop just wasn't up to it, so a replacement really helped. Regarding clouds I have found a close study of various IR and water vapour channel satellite images very helpful and have saved me imaging on many nights when it would not have been worth it.

I was shooting at my buddy's cabin at the lake last summer - beautiful spot, Bortle 2 skies.  ASIair controlled the plan after I went to get some sleep.  I woke to find that there was a lot of moisture on the scope and camera.  I initially thought it must be dew from being close to the lake, but nothing else seemed to be damp.  Turns out the automatic sprinklers popped out of the ground at 5 am and gave my equipment a good wash.

It took several days to dry out but thankfully no damage.

Boy I can relate to many issues here! Probably the one in particular that stands out right now was 72hr run with a secondary rig where I set it up in the corner of my observatory. Got everything all balanced and PA done. Started my focus routine, and got on the object and started PHD2 for guiding then started the image. Guide numbers were .39-.45 rms. About 20 minutes into the image I get a message that EAF was disconnected and for whatever reason PHD2 went totally bonkers! I mean numbers that were 25 & 30 rms. Crazy stupid!
I couldn’t get nothing to run that night with that rig so I moved to my main rig and had nothing but egg shapes for stars! So I said _ _ _ _ it for the night. 
The next day I got up and pulled the (new wider field) rig apart and and swapped out the EAF and got it back on the mount, balanced and ready to go for that nights run being it was going to be clear. Started out pretty much the same way the second night and was guiding well etc.. this time it was about 30 minutes and I got the same damn error on the EAF WTF! Yes causing & swearing was happening! 🤬 went to the main rig again and things did go better until clouds 1 hour into an image when all 3 weather apps i use said clear all night. (Clear outside, Astospheric, clearsky clock) Closed up the observatory for the night.
The next morning I did the same thing, changed out the EAF after having to take one off a backup rig, mounted and balance, double checked PA that night and I got some outstanding guiding with no issues. When to the main rig while the secondary rig was going well and got it running and collected excellent data from both rigs all night long.

In the end between the 2 EAF’s and the 1 I pulled off my backup rig that I replaced this ordeal cost me $600. Still don’t know what caused the EAF’s to go bad!

I swear there are gremlins that sit in the corner watching me with a control button that says, send clouds push here, _ _ _ _ up guiding push here, etc!

I guess in the end when we actually get a nice image its all worth it.

Dale

After a year of doing this I would say nearly all of my nights involve some sort of battle with technology. Whether it's Phd2 failing to calibrate or electronic focuser failing to spin or periodic usb disconnects on the GEM45, there is always some frustrating element. 

I had the filter drawer fly out the first time i used it. I learned real quick that there is a small hex setscrew that secures the filter in place and the knob on top twists to make it so the drawer will not come out of the slot. Fortunately it did not result in a damaged filter.

Blaine Gibby:
Last night had a pretty bright moon but I decided to test my collimation with 10” newtonian. 

Polar alignment struggled with ASIAIR, I thought it was the focus so I tried auto focus and the curve was nearly flat.
After a bit of trouble shooting, I noticed the cables wrapped around the focuser were causing a drag on the focusing knobs 
I then proceeded to start unwrapping/untangling wires and one caught the filter drawer knob and flung the filter to the ground, obliterating my l-eXtreme LP filter 
Loud yelling.

I still wanted to test out my collimation so I took out my backup ZWO DuoBand filter and stuck it in
After getting my cables rearranged, auto focus and polar alignment went flawlessly
I was about to start my imaging session but when I looked up: CLOUDS!
Ordered another l-eXtreme from highpoint 
All before midnight 

I ended up getting 2 5 min subs. Collimation was great!

Hah you think thats a bad night? Try finding out that your CGEM II suddenly likes to run causing your brand new dewshield to be bent (luckily its one of the foam-leathery ones) and your powertank cooked your brand new A7III on the same night. I love learning new things. (OH and on the same night you finally get to use L-Pro and new equipment on your rig). All this happened on sunday.

Back to the first dark site, some drunk guys down the road were doing "doughnuts" on the dirt road in their pickup truck, and they shot at me several times out the window while I was imaging.  One of the bullets whizzed right over my head.    I sat behind my car on the ground until they left.  I later found out that they shot at two other people from our local astronomy club on different nights.

You win!

Sorry about that mate! My worst experience was driving hour and a half to a dark site. Set the tripod and mount, put the weight in the bar, half turn to pick up the telescope from the case and hear the mount smashing the ground. Forgot to secure with the screw. Test it, dec didn't work, pack everything and go home lol. Shit happens. 

David

Back to the first dark site, some drunk guys down the road were doing "doughnuts" on the dirt road in their pickup truck, and they shot at me several times out the window while I was imaging.  One of the bullets whizzed right over my head.    I sat behind my car on the ground until they left.  I later found out that they shot at two other people from our local astronomy club on different nights.

You win!

AGREED! 😳

In my first year of imaging, I was cleaning up at the dark site at 2:30 AM, when I accidentally unclamped the RA axis on my rig and turned my back.  Unfortunately, I had removed the counter-weight and not the telescope in my tiredness.  The unbalanced rig swung around violently, and the cables coming out of the filter wheel were slammed against the tripod leg.  The USB connector in the filter wheel was ripped completely off the circuit board, and there was no chance of repair.  Replacement cost was $730 for the filter wheel, and it was back-ordered for 6 weeks!!! 

On another night at a different dark site, also cleaning up at 2:30 AM, I dropped a 17 lb. counter-weight that landed on the top of my left foot and probably broke several small bones.  I had a 1 hr. 10 min. drive back to my house with a broken foot, which swelled up to the size of a football when I got home and unlaced the shoe.   

Back to the first dark site, some drunk guys down the road were doing "doughnuts" on the dirt road in their pickup truck, and they shot at me several times out the window while I was imaging.  One of the bullets whizzed right over my head.    I sat behind my car on the ground until they left.  I later found out that they shot at two other people from our local astronomy club on different nights.

Anyone want to join me for a dark site trip?

Holy ! I thought some of my nights had gone miserably wrong, but I've never been shot at !??

Did I mention the one dark site was right next to a cemetery?  I didn't have to go far if one of the bullets hit the mark.

* Here in the UK we don't have guns ... And I'm glad 😅