Quote:
Originally Posted by fishinglizard
Thx for the advice, another question for you, I set my scope up last night before dark, wife and I had tea cleaned up kiddy to bed ect, then went out to the scope and it was like it had been hosed down it was that wet with dew, The cover was on, should I be covering it (the hole scope) with something to stop this?? Also the EQ5 mount I have, the leg with N on it to face to North, but my father reckons that should point south in the southern hemisphere?
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Hi fishinglizard,
You should have the leg with north, pointing north, all my scopes are set up like this as it makes it easier start to align the scope to the poles with a compass, I don't think it matters really as long as the scopes mount can be turned without having to turn the whole scope, legs and all to align it to the poles. As for your dew problem well....a plastic tarp does help if you are going to leave the scope unattended for some time outside. But I also have found covering the finder with a plastic bag as well decreases the chance of dew formation, Always cover the main tube with it's cover before leaving it unattended. (a tent with a annex can be a handy cheap obsevatory for your back yard - see
http://www.rodroger.com/rr/rodrogers...ts_Astro1.html - my site - see photo's at bottom of page for my tent setup
)
Another problem you will find is dew formation while in use. The only way to stop this is the use of - 1. a dew shield, 2. the use of a hair dryer to dry the mirrors etc or 3. get yourself (make yourself or purchase) some dew heaters which are readily available for various size scopes and will keep the dew of the mirrors & lens. Depending on the scope you are using will depend on the dew heaters used.
For my Meade SCT I use a dew heater on the Finder scope, eyepieces and main corrector.
On my Newtonion I use dew heaters on my Finder and eyepiece only as the internal mirrors generaly don'y have too much problem unless I am observing close to the zenith for a period of time and dew may form on the secondary mirror and partially affect the main mirror but this does not happen very often