Sorry! Another cleaning question.

[Joe_L]

The other night my corrector plate on my Nexstar 6SE looked a bit dewy. Very hard to see and only observable at certain angles but I'm convinced this was on the INSIDE. I have a small homemade dew strap (approx 3W) and a foam dew tube but it was quite a cool damp night.

In daylight the inside of the corrector plate looks slightly mottled and smeary, a bit like drying marks. Is this from internal condensation then drying again? Would it be an idea to try drying the inside air with a small tube with some silca gel? 

Would this benefit from dismantling and cleaning?   (Ducks below parapet after opening another cleaning thread! Sorry!)

Joe

[Dave In Vermont]

I'd leave it indoors for awhile with the eyepiece/diagonal removed. Let it dry naturally. Dismantling can be quite tricky. You need to be sure to replace the corrector-plate in the exact position it was set to during manufacture.

That's my take,

Dave

[Peter Drew]

I agree with Dave, it's not a strip down issue. Make sure the anti dew strip is placed below the front cell, the tube wall is thinner and will warm up easier helping to keep dew at bay particularly from the rear of the corrector. 

[Joe_L]

I agree with Dave, it's not a strip down issue. Make sure the anti dew strip is placed below the front cell, the tube wall is thinner and will warm up easier helping to keep dew at bay particularly from the rear of the corrector. 

That's an interesting suggestion, I'll give it a try. My home-made dew strap is a couple of strings of resistors in a wide flat tube of heatshrink which I haven't shrunk yet. At the moment its snugly fitted just inside the top rin above the corrector plate (you can just see this in the photo) . There's enough play in it to change the length so it should be easy to move it lower down. I'll try and let the inner space air a bit as well.

Thanks,

Joe

[Mark in Macc]

Don't worry, it will make no difference to its performance. You can buy desiccant caps from FLO. They are hollow caps that you can fill with desiccant sachets to cap the visual back. I use a dehumidifier as well on mine before I put the caps on.

[Joe_L]

Drat! That means the fuzzy ball stars I see are just terrible seeing and not anything I can cure with my equipment.....Do you think attaching dessicant to a helium balloon will help?

[Mark in Macc]

I suspect it would float off into the stratosphere