Tonight, I finally wanted to test the TouCam with my scope for the first time. I figured, work out all the kinks tonight, and be set for tomorrow's lunar eclipse! When i set the scope up at 5.30pm, it was still light, the moon was up...but when looking at the moon through EPs, the moon looked like it was floating...make sense? What could cause that?
ANYWAY, I went to the gym, came back and got the TouCam connected to the scope at 10pm...only to find that, due to the temperature drop, all my lenses, mirrors, you name it, had condensation on them. How do I stop that from happening? I read about "dew straps"...what are they, and do I need them? So unhappy!
At least last night I was able to check out the moon, as well as Jupiter and 4 of its moons. Was awesome!!
Any suggestions? If the temp. drops tomorrow, my photo ops are gone, and I'll be back to taking images with my digital camera.
Nice!!
Couple of things you can do.
1. Build a dew shield out of an unused yoga mat (or sacrifice someones thin camping mat) and some velcro.
2. Get a dew heater (one that you can control)
3. while your at it get one for you finderscope as well. Trust me you will need it.
The Dew shield can be made in a matter of minutes once you have the material and short blasts with the hair dryer will be all you need. But it is only a short term measure. With a corrector plate at the front dewing comes with the game. And with the humidity that BrisVegas gets it is a year long joy (except when those lovely south westerlies blow in winter )
DJVege - what Paul says is right. You won't be able to use your equipment outside at night when you start dewing up without some dew control methods in place. With a unit like yours that has a corrector plate (such as either a Schmidt-Newtonian or Cassegrain) you can firstly benefit from a wrap-around dew shield (such as in the first photo). Then, as you get more involved, go for a dew heater and controller to gently heat the corrector plate flange that serves to heat the air held within the dew sheild. It only needs to maintain a temperature a couple of degrees above the real ambient air temp to prevent dew from forming.
Another thing, if you are leaving your setup for a while just cover it with some garbags to physically stop the dew getting on it then the other dew controls will not have to work so hard when you are using the scope again.
I guess I'll have to check out these kendrick systems out, eh?
Not necessarily - at all. Build your own - it isn't hard if you're any good with your own or someone else's hands.... strip, controller and all. I build the one you see in my 12" scope in about 90 minutes from start to finish - and all for around $10 in parts.
For your finder scope, slip one of those soft stubby coolers over the working end. Don't forget to cut the bottom off it. LOL
What!! And spoil a perfectly good stubby holder. You could use a small softdrink bottle, withj both ends cut out, and keep the stubby holder for its intended and very noble use
So the general jist of things is to cover the scope to keep it warm...yes? Not too warm, but we don't want it colder than the dew point. Yes?
Yep - a differential temperature of two or three degrees from ambient will do it. You don't want any more than that because you start getting warm air currents interfering with your optics otherwise - which is just as bad as not being able to see at all....... hence the variability available to you via a controller.
Having an enclosed tube your primary won't dew up. If you are going to use a dew shield, just use the hair drier intermittently on the corrector plate when it starts to look a bit "cloudy". Shouldn't take much.
So disappointing!!!!! :(
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