January brought with it not one, but two astronomical tragedies. The first was a promising dark site expedition that ended before it began—I arrived at the remote location only to discover I’d left behind all my essential cables. A perfect night sky wasted.
Just when I thought my luck might turn around, disaster struck again. After setting up my equipment at home to capture the ethereal Jellyfish Nebula, I awoke the next morning to find my ZWO FF65 lens had suffered a direct hit from an aerial bombardment of the avian variety. Initially mistaking it for condensation from approaching rain clouds, I hurriedly packed up my gear to protect it from what I thought would be morning showers.
It wasn’t until the following day, as I prepared for a third attempt at capturing my elusive target, that I discovered the true nature of the “clouding” on my lens—dried bird droppings caked onto the glass surface. There was no avoiding it; a thorough cleaning was necessary. I carefully removed the dew shield to access the inner tube housing the lens. Armed with Zeiss lens cleaning solution, I gently loosened the hardened residue and meticulously wiped everything clean with Kimwipes. Fortunately, the high-quality glass emerged unscathed, ready for another night under the stars—hopefully with better luck this time.