Hawksmoor

A very generous and exciting proposal. As I have decreasing mobility and in the week of my 70th birthday, it struck me that the number of times I will be able to lift my 5inch refractor out of the house and onto its pier mount are decreasing each and every year and not only due to the appalling weather here on the east coast. Thank you very much FLO you are a class act and will now keep me astronomy active long after my telescope toting days are behind me. Best regards from George in Lowestoft

Hi and welcome to SGL from George next the sea in Lowestoft.

My old architectural practice was multidisciplinary (including mechanical, electrical and environmental engineers) and we designed a number of archive facilities which had strict environmental controls regarding relative humidity and temperature. I have some experience , some success and more than a few set backs in battles with condensation. The key issues are the relative humidity of the air and the surface temperature of your kit. In my backyard where I observe the relative humidity is often somewhere between 85 and 95% at this time of year. As soon as I take out my scope or cameras they start to radiate heat out into space. At some point in time the glass will cool and reach the dew point (the temperature at which the moisture in the air can no longer exist as a vapour). Irrespective of the amount of thermal insulation or the thermal mass of the glass at some point in time the dew point will be reached and condensate will appear where I don't want it. Thermal collars and the like which I have made delay the inevitable for about a hour and a half for the smaller bits of glass (camera lenses, my 66mm refractor and 60mm guide scope) and approximately 3 to four hours for my 127mm refractor's objective lens. The only way to prevent this happening is to add back the heat (that is being lost through radiation out into space) either by using a hair drier or dew heaters. For this reason I have just made dew heaters for all my bits of kit as I got fed up with having to stop imaging on the few clear moonless nights available because 'Niagara Falls' had turned points of starlight into fuzz balls. I suspect your 'observatory enclosure' will increase the time before the dew point is reached but if the relative humidity of the air in the observatory is high and in reality it will be similar to ambient external RH, condensation will eventually form on bits of kit that have a surface temperatures equal or lower than the dew point temperature. I've rambled on for a bit - sorry - old consultants never die they just ramble on for a bit more. best regards from George 'moist' in Lowestoft next the Sea.

We had the electrical storm directly overhead in Lowestoft. A second after a tremendous lightning flash the Sun from the West created a wonderfully bright rainbow in contrast with the black 'back-lit' clouds in the East. Spectacular! I do hope you are all safe in your tents at Kelling? best regards George

Nicely bonkers mate! I manage to fill my 'down time' with similar eccentricities and my wife has been used to it for forty-six years, you have to admire their fortitude! best regards from George In Lowestoft

Hi Gina It's raining on one side of my house whilst I have bright sunshine on the other and I don't have a big house! I can be simultaneously optimistic and pessimistic - the wonders of living next the sea. regards George 'damp in Lowestoft'