[APML] Tales of the really stupid

["Scott Hammonds" <shammonds@creatorsview.com>]

They say confession is good for the soul, so...

It has been clear here in Georgia for the last several days, but due to high
winds I didn't setup until Saturday afternoon. I took 2 tech pan images
Saturday night, one of them is posted below, it was a test of my 2X Canon
converter, and has a quick and dirty processing.

Well, last night was pristine, clear, calm and great seeing. Saturn was rock
steady at 192x in my NP101, just beautiful. I was already polar aligned from
the night before, the scope was setup on my driveway and I was taking my
first image at 6:50pm. After completing the first image I was inside getting
ready to shoot the second when the phone rang and a friend wanted to stop by
to visit for a few minutes. Here is where the evening went bad. I decided to
turn on the exterior lights so he wouldn't run over my scope and mount. I
thought I would cover the camera with a black cloth to keep out any stray
white light. I put the lens cap on and threw the black cloth on the top.
After my friend departed I started the next image in Cass, then moved on to
the next, IC410 in Auriga. Around 11pm I decide I was finished for the night
and uncoupled the camera for storage in a dessicant filled container until
developing in the morning. Inside I discovered I had left the lens cap in
place on the camera!!!! The night was a total bust. My wife just shook her
head.  I haven't done anything that dumb in quite a while.


California Nebula
http://www.creatorsview.com/astrophoto/techpan/ngc1499.html

Scott Hammonds


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