[darrellx (Darrell)]

Hi All

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable and pleasant Christmas/New Year break.

I had the opportunity to spend a solid 6 days and 5 nights at my dark site and use all the equipment I purchased in 2018 in my new Observatory. Wonderful time.

Everything went fine, with no problems. However 2 issues did arise. On these 2 issues I would like to seek some input from this forum.

The first issue/question relates to Dew Control. I did read somewhere that on moving into an Observatory Dew becomes much less of an issue. Well ain't that the truth! I have never really had a problem with Dew. I have some Dew straps connected to a controller and on those damp nights everything is kept under control. Over the 5 nights, 3 of them were very damp. All outside surfaces were running with moisture. In the Dome - dry. I did not even turn on my Dew Controller. I am wondering if that is the experience of others. Or was I just very lucky for this time?

The second issue - light inside the Dome. This will probably be more relevant to those who have a Dome, but I would still be interested in comments from Team-ROR. In my Dome I have a Bay that I use to house my laptop. By its very nature it means the laptop screen is directed to the centre of the Dome. Even when I turn down the brightness of the screen there is still some significant light reflected around. If I turn the screen into Night Mode, it makes it too hard to read. So I draped a thickish towel over the laptop, and when I wanted to do anything, I stuck my head under the towel. I have asked my wife to make me a nice curtain to run across the Bay. I would like to know what other solutions anyone has tried that worked. I suppose you might ask what is the impact of the light. Well, not a lot on the imaging side. But it did seem to have an impact on the guider.

Thanks
Darrell