Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester
I am another one who had a ZWO stick on heater, I used it on my ASI294 at one point. Bit of a placebo effect, I can't tell you if it prevented dew on the sensor window I just know I never suffered from it, but I also have not suffered it since I removed it to do something else. I have the window heater switched on on the 2600 at the moment. I could probably go in and turn it off with the temperatures we have now, but I am not inclined to risk wasting part of a night if if dews up when I am in bed, just to find out if it does. I don't get enough imaging time to waste a night for the sake of 5W.
Thermal shock seems to be a "Friend of a friends uncles neighbor" thing as far as anyone who has actually had a problem with it. I ease the 294 down slowly as it has a tiny amount of moisture in the camber (I need to dry the desiccant pills) and bringing it down slowly generally prevents it from forming condensation on the sensor and then icing that up. My ASI2600 I just set -10 and let it cool by itself, and at the end of the night I warm them up in Voyager, which takes maybe 5 minutes. I figure that if it does not cause me any time issues it does no harm to warm them slowly, so I might as well. Voyager does it for me without my intervention so it is as easy as not doing it.
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Yes, very occasionally have had bit of icing in the QHY9 if cool down too rapidly, so step it down over 10 mins, but not obsessive about warm up. Usually program it in Sequence Generator as an automatic process - if I'm in bed then no time lost letting it do its thing at astronomical twilight for a warm up. Don't do it religiously if pulling down earlier in the night.