Packing up - dew/moisture precautions

[RobF]

Just wondering what precautions/procedures, if any, do people follow when packing up for the night?

Do you fully cap eyepieces and scope before heading inside? Does it matter? - should be warmer inside, so moisture shouldn't get worse?


Rob

[erick]

Because I'm usually travelling to observe, I have no choice but to cap and pack everything to return home. All I do is wipe the major dew/ice(!) off the scope, boxes etc - but don't touch lenses, mirrors etc.

Next morning, I get everything opened up to the air - all caps off etc. Scopes in the cold garage, the rest in the warm house. Usually stay open for half or a whole day before I inspect then cap and pack everything away again.

[leon]

Your best bet is not to cap anything until the scope, EP's or the like have come back to the temperature of their place of storage.

I have observatory so everything pretty much says outside, and at the ambient temp of that particular time of the day or night, however after a nights imaging, and i have closed the observatory for the night i still leave all caps and covers off until the next day so all things can reach ambient temp again.

And even run a small fan just to circulate the air to assist and drying off dew etc.

Leon :thumbsup:

[casstony]

I cap everything and close eyepieces inside a case before bringing them inside; otherwise moisture condenses on all cold surfaces. Air everything out the next day when the equipment and inside air temperature has equalized, but keep it covered with a cloth to avoid dust.

[Starkler]

Once my eyepiece case is inside the house, I open up the case and uncap any eyepieces that have been used and exposed to the air that evening to dry out and cap them again in the morning.

[rmcpb]

My scope gets Tony's treatment and the eyepieces get Geoff's treatment. Next morning I open the scope up so and moisture in it can escape and not cause problems. Works for me :)

[danielsun]

I do exactly the same with my EP's to make sure they are completely dry and I don't cap any of my scopes or finders at the end of night either,
I hang a sheet over the whole set up to air out and recap everything in the morning when I know everything is dew free and dry.

[TrevorW]

Got my cases full of silica gel bags to absorb moisture cap everything up and put away till next time, dew's not often a big problem here.

Cheers

[Dennis]

I drag everything under the house overnight, uncapped but with a dust sheet spread over all the gear so it can “breathe” and gradually adjust to the inside temperature, which is only a couple of degrees above the outside due to the airflow through the battens.

Cheers

Dennis

[RobF]

Whew. Thanks for all those thoughts guys.

With my old baby reflector I always avoided putting eyepieces away in plastic containers until I knew they were dry and equilibrated with daytime conditions. The scope would get closed to avoid condensation on mirrors.

Occured to me last night I better make sure I'm doing the right thing for my new baby. Sounds like I'm not doing anything silly anyway (effectively following the "Tony and Geoff" procedure as Rob has put it!).