January’s update consists of a tale of two tragedies. The first was a failed opportunity at taking pictures in a remote dark site due to leaving all cables. Followed by bird poop.
I was attempting to capture the Jellyfish nebula, after the dark site trip, but after polar aligning my ZWO FF65 lens was hit directly with bird poop. This was the second night of imaging, and when I woke up I thought it was just clouds and incoming rain. I ran to bring everything inside before the morning rain showers.
The next day, a third attempt at the target was scheduled but brutally interrupted when I realized the disgusting situation on the lens. It was dry and hardened, so I had no choice but to attempt a cleaning. The dew shield was removed uncovering an inner tube holding the lens. Zeiss lens cleaning solution was used to loosen the dried poop and wipe everything clean. Luckily everything seemed to come off easily and wipes clean with kimwipes.