I've told this story before, bear with me if you've heard it. It was the spring of 1976, IIRC, maybe 77, without looking it up, when comet West burst into the early morning spring sky. I was using a home made 8" f/7 Newtonian on a Cave Astrola heavy-duty mount. At least a hundred pounds of iron and steel, packed around in my mom's '68 Vista Cruiser station wagon. I had borrowed a Nikon F camera body and lens from a family friend who happened to be a photographer for the Tribune, and had it attached piggy-back to the Newtnonian. I was taking time exposures and tracking, doing very well. Understand that I was in high-school at the time and quite the nerd. Ask Patrick, he remembers. LOL! Near the end of the roll, that morning on Little Mountain so many decades ago, I decided to adjust the camera a bit, due to the changing geometry of the comet/horizon relationship. Well, somehow the camera fell off the piggyback mount, crashed to the rocky, icy ground, and the back popped open. I turned my flashlight to the scene of the disaster and, yep, fogged the entire roll of high-speed Ektachrome. Not only that, but the camera and lens were damaged to the point where I could not get them to function. My entire morning, and all my shots of West, were destroyed. The camera was irrepairable, but my 'friend' (whom never volunteered to loan me another camera, lol!) never asked me to pay for it. I have always been very grateful since back then it was way beyond my budget! I still have my memories of comet West, though, which remains to this day the best comet I have ever seen, bar none. Imagine a Hale-Bopp about 5X larger and twice as bright. The tail started to rise some 3 or 4 hours before the nucleus. Yeah, like that. Counting my blessings, still, and broken camera aside. That's my Great Tale of Astrophoto Failure. At least up until now, but life's not over yet, lol. Thanks for listening.