My uncle used to install those systems! Said you could practically use that old cable as a tow rope.

Yeah, that's the real secret they don't always tell you when you're starting out. I read an article a while back from an astrophotographer who said the biggest jump in quality for most people isn't a new scope, it's learning how to properly process the data you already have. Your story proves that point perfectly. It's amazing what you can pull out of the noise with some patience and free software. That feeling of seeing detail emerge for the first time on your own screen is just unbeatable.

Your "bad injector, not a coil" guess is why my old scanner and I are in a fight right now.

Man, my buddy Mike had this happen last summer. He was sure a field near his town was from the early 1900s because of some glass bits on top. But when his team dug down, they hit a layer with stone tools way older, like from before contact. It totally changed their whole idea of the place. Goes to show you really can't trust what's sitting on the surface, you gotta get down in the dirt to see the full picture.

That story just kept getting better with each rock. Your boss naming everything quartz is the kind of chaos I live for. Can you imagine a real geologist watching that call? They would either be so mad or absolutely love the Lego mineral discovery. Honestly, those weird meetings are sometimes the only thing that makes the work day feel human.