I have set my gear up inside my dome for the first time this last week.
It has been -3C here and colder over night. I am finding that there is quite a lot of condensation forming on the telescope and mount.
This condensation is only forming in the morning when the sun first hits the dome and heats up the air inside. It goes from -3C to about 2C within half an hour. The air inside is heating up far quicker than the metal components of the telescope, hence the condensation.
I have tried two thing so far to try and stop it.
First I covered the scope and mount in a quilt and sheet, this really didn't do anything. Any metal that is not touching the material still forms condensation.
Second I used a ducting fan to blow air around the mount and OTA. I thought the turbulent air would make it harder for the condensation to form.
It reduced the condensation and it dissipated a lot faster, but it still formed.
My next step will have to be some kind of heat straps that I can wrap around the metal surfaces of the mount and OTA. Setup with a timer that is programmed to come on before dawn and turn off an hour or two later.
I don't really want to go down this path it just adds extra wires and clutter. At the end of the night I want to close the shutter and go to bed, I don't want to be fiddling around with heat straps.
So I am wondering what do other people do to prevent this from happening inside their observatory's?
cheers
Phil