What's the stupidest reason you missed a great night for observing

[fogfire]

How did it go with the neighbors this morning?
Before we got annexed into Kirkland there was a mad rush to remove trees in our neighborhood, but all our utilities are underground. Even with all the trees that were removed or trimmed we still can't get a decent garden to grow and I still have to go a mile east to setup my scope.

Tried to talk to her this AM, and explain my concerns while she was prepping her yard.. response was "Don't talk to me" but she was a sweet and giggles with tree people and the city inspector I got sent out.

In the end the tree guys were professional.. They were able to get a permit in a couple hours and talked with me about the process and assured me that though it would have been easier if she had arranged for her other cables and mine to be down.. but in the end they have a process . So since they were just trying to do a job, once they had a permit. I moved my car and my father moved his he parks here.. and trees are coming down.

Actually heard her lie to inspector "giggle.. I didn't know I needed a permit. giggle" I told her twice in the last week she needed one... Sigh.....

[Tombstone17]

It's funny what a giggle and eye batting can get done...My wife has that down pat! I guess thats my reason...

[MoRbId]

It's funny what a giggle and eye batting can get done...My wife has that down pat! I guess thats my reason...

[MoRbId]

Me and a couple of people from the workplace have an Astronomy club(sort of) running, and we have this site we go to which is pretty dark. My reason being: They forgot to pick me up!

[dougscope]

I didn't miss the whole night but I felt really stoooopid after fiddling around with my LX-200 classic not aligning properly for quite some time.

I found that I had somehow bumped the N/S switch to S.

Nobody else around but I really embarrassed myself.

[pederv]

Tried to talk to her this AM, and explain my concerns while she was prepping her yard.. response was "Don't talk to me" but she was a sweet and giggles with tree people and the city inspector I got sent out.

In the end the tree guys were professional.. They were able to get a permit in a couple hours and talked with me about the process and assured me that though it would have been easier if she had arranged for her other cables and mine to be down.. but in the end they have a process . So since they were just trying to do a job, once they had a permit. I moved my car and my father moved his he parks here.. and trees are coming down.

Actually heard her lie to inspector "giggle.. I didn't know I needed a permit. giggle" I told her twice in the last week she needed one... Sigh.....

At least you got an inspector to show up and give the approval. I know some of the towns around here require an arborist to inspect and verify that the removal of the trees aren’t going to put additional stress on the trees that remain. Otherwise it might be tough to prove that the removal of some trees resulted in one of the remaining trees falling on your house once the winds pick up in November or March.
Now it’s just a matter of a clear night so you can put that new opening to the stars to use.

[Doug32]

As to a reason why I do not do as much observing as I can is simple laziness especially after a day’s work during the week.
I have an acquaintance who is very keen but restricts his observing to accommodate his partner who is not interested in astronomy and seems to resent his “messing around with telescopes’ rather than sitting with her watching the idiot box.
The rare times we observe together he invariably makes comments such as: "I will find two more objects and then I better call it a night" etc. This seems to occur around 11:00pm. I joke to him about his curfew which does not go down well. (Sad really)
Cheers
Doug

[wbp]

My stupidest reason to miss a great night of observing: A few years ago I planned a whole trip around a Jupiter double moon shadow event I really wanted to see and take pictures of. Drove to the location, set up camp, cooked supper, set up the scope, got everything ready. When it got dark enough to see big J and the moons, it was obvious that they weren't at all where I expected them to be. I had "UT'd" myself. It had happened the night before... Astronomy does teach us life lessons. The good news is I haven't ever made that mistake since then, so I guess I did learn something...