My telescope mount died at 2am during a meteor shower in Joshua Tree

I drove 3 hours to catch the Perseids and my goto mount just froze up right when the sky got dark, I had to switch to fully manual tracking with a barlow lens and somehow got 40 decent frames of the core. Has anyone else salvaged a night with a broken mount, or do you just pack it in and watch instead?

2 comments

2 Comments

ross.angela1mo ago

Did you keep the barlow on the whole time, or did you swap it out to grab wider shots of the Perseids themselves? @olivia478's got a point about manual tracking being a lost art, but I'm curious if you had a moment where you nearly chucked the whole rig into the desert. Those 40 frames probably feel like gold now, but was there a second that made you question the three-hour drive?

olivia4781mo ago

I used to think manual tracking was a workout for nothing, but you just proved it can save the night.