That night I left my telescope shutter open all night

I set up my rig on the back deck in Tucson hoping to catch Orion through the smoke haze, but I forgot to close the shutter at 3am and came out to find dew all over the corrector plate. Had to spend an hour with a hair dryer on low to clear it off without cracking the glass. Anyone else ever ruin a night of imaging from a simple forgot-to-close mistake?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver2424d ago

Man I feel your pain. I did the same thing last winter when I was out in the driveway trying to get Andromeda and left the shutter open because I was too tired to check. Woke up the next morning and the whole corrector plate looked like a frozen lake. Took me forever with a hair dryer and I was worried the whole time I'd warp something. Did you end up getting any salvageable frames from that night or was it a total write off?

thompson.tyler3d ago

That "frozen lake" description is exactly right. I've been there too, staring at a dew-covered corrector plate and feeling like an idiot. The hair dryer on low is the only way to go but man, the anxiety of cracking glass is real. I actually got lucky that night and salvaged maybe a dozen frames before the haze killed the rest. Sometimes you just have to laugh about it, right? Hard lesson learned about setting a phone alarm for 3am.