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Laptops outsin in the winter


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Hi!,

I've been using my notebook computer for control at my telescope since spring and have become very dependant on it for doing visual variable star observing. With the winter months and cold weather coming, I'd like to keep using it but I'm wrestling with what the cold will do to it. Has anyone out there used a notebook in the cold for control, goto mount or CCD? Did you do anything special to keep it from freezing? What about the LCD screen?

Thanks for any help anyone can be!

Rick

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My laptop has been seriously used and abused. It has been dripping in due and caked in frost. I've got a bit more sensible now and try to keep a plastic sheet over it to keep the dew off. The only problem I've had is blowing the power supply once when I took it inside and plugged it in again. Thats when the damp really penetrates so now, when I go inside again, I just run it off the battery until it is properly dry.

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Rick

I've used several different laptops outside for imaging (Sony and Acer)

Did have one rain-related disaster, but that was just bad luck. No problem so far with the cold, but I do tend to baulk at using one when there is too much condensation.

Quite often for planetary imaging I use it with the battery rather than the mains, which means I can at least switch things off a lot quicker in an emergency. The only other thing I would mention is that I don't tend to switch it straight back on when I bring it indoors. I copy stuff onto a memory stick for safety and for back-up.

There is always a risk with these things. Another problem area is damp in motors and hand controllers. Bern at Modern Astronomy tells me that something called Conformal can be used to waterproof circuit boards.

In an ideal world a cheap and cheerful basic laptop is probably a good idea for imaging and guiding so that you can leave the top-end kit indoors and the possible financial grief won't be quite as harrowing.

Geoff

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