dealing with dew

[richbyers]

so i left my scope out- now its covered- any ideas? are those dew reduction thingys worth it? seems like an unwinnable situation- you have to leave scope out to cool but it gets covered in moisture

[umadog]

Moisture on the outside is ok. Moisture on the optics is not. Heat and add dewstrips in order to prevent dew. Don't over-heat or you'll mess up the views.

[richbyers]

yes thats my problem- wheres the middle ground between cool scope and heated dewless scope?

really ruined my night tonight

[umadog]

Experiment and find out, I'm afraid. In principle you want to be about a degree or so above ambient. In practice that can be hard to achieve exactly. The way I look at it: you're better off having slightly warm optics than dewy optics. Experiment to see how much heat is too much heat.

One trick you can try at short notice is to blow off dew with a Rocket Blower. Also, make a longer dew shield. In theory a fan blowing on an object should keep the dew off but if you have to blow too hard you will induce vibrations.

I suggest you buy or make a temperature controller and buy or make some heater strips (e.g. Heaters).