TIL my telescope mount's clutch was stripped for 2 months without me noticing
I was out at Cherry Springs last Tuesday and couldn't figure out why my stars were trailing in every 30 second exposure. Turns out the RA clutch on my old Celestron AVX had been slowly slipping since June, and I just blamed the polar alignment every time. Anyone else had a gear failure that was so gradual you didn't catch it until the photos were ruined?