My telescope mount gave out during a meteor shower shoot last August

My telescope mount gave out during a meteor shower shoot last August. I was out in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree trying to capture the Perseids when my old iOptron mount just stopped tracking mid-exposure, losing 2 hours of data. Anyone else had a mount fail on them at the worst time?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_jackson22d ago

Ugh, that's brutal. Same thing happened to me with a Celestron AVX during a lunar eclipse last year, mount just locked up right as the red started to show. Lost a whole night of setup and a solid hour of good data.

the_john22d ago

...then you know exactly how I felt staring at my screen watching the data I worked for just slip away. The AVX has a real problem with thermal contraction when the temperature drops fast, those cold nights are a gamble every time. I've started keeping a small space heater aimed at the mount base for the first hour of cooling, seems to help but it's not perfect. Did you ever try contacting Celestron support about yours or did you just write it off like I did?