There are observations after a Big Bang.

[John Baars]

Friday evening it was beautifully clear; the first public evening for my local observatory of the season since the lockdown. Reservations were heavily oversubscribed because under the new rules we were only allowed to receive 6 people in the audience, where we would normally have 20 people as guests. As a senior I had chosen the open observation post at the 130mm Starfire refractor on the terrace , above the small dome of the 14 inch SCT in which it is much too crowded. Jupiter and Saturn looked great, as if they knew they had to make up for 1.5 years of lockdown. The audience was stunned and pleasantly surprised that you could see all this so well. Someone even thought we hid a picture in the telescope...not for the first time.

When I got home I immediately wanted to see what the difference would be with my 102 mm GnG Maksutov on Alt/Az. At home the seeing turned out to be rather good as well. Although just put outside, the insulation on the Maksutov turned out to be doing its job well and the picture showed as many ripples as moments of rest, which can be called good here. Details were visible, a bit less pronounced and slightly paler than in the refractor. I shifted my stool and KABOOM!!! with the sound of thunder two legs popped out from under my seat. I fell backwards in a split second, but thanks to my JUDO past I still managed to land on the concrete tiles. (chin on the chest, on the side, muscles tense, so not like a bag of cement) Only my right elbow was slightly sore from the friction of my vest against the skin. The blow was so loud that my wife and the neighbors came out to ask if everything was okay. A very quick way to abort an observation!

I should have known this was going to happen, because the last few times I found that the seat wobbled more than usual. Stubbornly of course and just keep going. After the shock and reassuring everyone, I grabbed a fresh chair and just continued to observe. You don't let such a seeing take you away, do you?

I was happy to finish Summer Queens such as M57 Ring nebula, M27 Dumbbell nebula and M71 Globular. Then globular M15 to mark the transition to Autumn, finally the extragalactic M31 and M32 (M33 and Mirach's Ghost failed), NGC457 ET cluster, and open cluster M103.

It was a memorable evening.

[turboscrew]

So a good session regardless of the sudden dive?

[notFritzArgelander]

Glad to hear you enjoyed the evening and the martial arts training served you well!

[Butterfly Maiden]

That sounds like a good session overall John.

But, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing. If you had checked those legs of the stool earlier you could have saved yourself from a nasty fall.

I am pleased to hear you minimised your injury though.

[kt4hx]

Very nice outing John, and happy to hear that things are starting to return to some sense of normalcy.

I had a spill like yours once, but in my case I fell on the soft ground. I was observing on a slight incline and while seated at my 10 inch dob I dropped something and leaned over to pick it up. But I leaned in the downhill direction so me and the chair went over. Just a gentle thud but enough to elicit a question from my wife who was sitting about 30 ft away on the back deck watching for meteors. While she didn't see me fall, she heard me!

[Bigzmey]

Quite eventful evening John. Glad you are OK, those chairs are sneaky!