Not enough of an experience to call it quits but it did make me question my sanity:
A week ago Saturday night I invited some new friends out to our dark site to take their first looks through a "real" telescope. My 25".
First, the humidity was terrible at sunset. The worst I have ever seen. After getting set up I was just dripping wet. And it was hot. Really hot.
Second, the mosquitoes were horrendous. You could feel them smacking into you when moving about.
Third, My scope's drive was acting goofy. I could not get it to go-to or track. I spent a few minutes troubleshooting but gave up and used the scope as a manual.
For anyone with a big non-tracking scope having people who are not familiar with observing observe is a pain. They take to long to get up the ladder. I can put the object on the edge of the FOV so it can drift through but by the time they ask for the third time "where do I look" the object is gone. Sigh. Luckily there were many other scope for them to look through, including Mitchell's 36", so they had a good time.
After they left (around 11:00) I got back to troubleshooting my drive. I put Argo in the mode so I could see the encoder counts. All looked fine. As I was scrolling through the options I saw a "low input voltage" error message. I checked my power supply and it was fine. I then checked the power out to the ServoCat. Not fine. Only 10v. I pulled the RCA connector out and checked the voltage. 12v. I plugged the RCA back in and bingo, 12v to the drive. Just a dirty connection. Two seconds to fix. The scope worked just fine after that. But I had lost my observing Mojo by then. Moon rise was just around the corner so I just poured myself a Scotch and did a little gee whiz observing, BS'd with friends and hit the sack at moon rise.
On nights I take my 25" out I sleep in the back of my trailer. A portable ac unit and a blow up mattress make for a decent few hours of sleep. Got up around 9:00 and started breaking down the scope. It was hot. And humid. I went through two changes of clothes. Drove home damp and tired. Got near Houston and there was a wreck on the freeway in the worst possible place. Couldn't get around it. Added 30 minutes to my drive.
Will I do it again?
You betcha!
Edited by Keith Rivich, 22 September 2020 - 08:11 AM.