My telescope mount gave out during a 3 minute exposure of the Orion Nebula last night

I had everything dialed in perfect. Polar alignment was spot on, focus was crisp, and I was 2 minutes into a 3 minute exposure of M42. Then I heard this grinding noise from the mount and the whole thing just stopped tracking. Stars turned into streaks across the frame. Turns out the worm gear on my old Celestron mount finally stripped out after 6 years of use. It was 38 degrees out and I had been out there for almost 2 hours getting setup. I packed everything up and just sat in my truck for a minute before driving home. Has anyone else had a mount fail mid-shot like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_baker9918d ago

Posted my rig in the rain once and felt that exact gut punch. Stripped gear on a 20 year old mount myself, same grinding noise of doom. Sometimes the universe just says not tonight.

the_jordan18d ago

the grinding noise of doom" man that phrase is gonna stick with me. I used to think people who babied their gear were being way too precious about it, like it's a tool not a treasure right? but then I had a dew heater controller die on me mid imaging session and it was sitting there all fogged up and useless and I realized nah some of this stuff really does need to be treated gentle. you can't just trust the universe with your expensive toys, sometimes the universe is having a bad day.