Looking after your telescope

[madala]

Hi, I expect that this is covered somewhere on this site so apologies. I hear that it can take half an hour for a telescope to cool down prior to viewing which is fine but are there any issues with bringing a telescope back into a warm area after viewing on a cold night? Can you get condensation build up when bringing your kit in from the cold? Should I do anything special to protect the kit or can I just put it away. Thanks

[oldpink]

IF I bring mine in which I tend not to do as its almost a permanent fixture in my garden
I sit my 200 aperture side down and leave it to acclimatise to the ambient temp and touch nothing
and place it next to my front door as thats the part of my house thats not heated so very close to outdoor temps
apart from wiping any dew off the outer tube thats all I do

[Charic]

......I place the OTA at about 45° with the dust cap on, but with the small 2" aperture cap removed. Once  any condensate has dispersed from the mirror I replace the 2" cap and store vertical  with a tailor made plastic heavy duty sheet, to protect from the ravishes of kitchen life, and the bi-products of cooking?

[lardy]

I bring mine into the kitchen wipe down the tube and focuer with kitchen roll, leave the caps off. Then once out of bed check the optics and replace lens cap and dessicant plug...... don't tend to get dew on lens as I use a kendrick, then it goes back in its case with a dessicant bag.

My 14 lives in the pod with a light bulb under the OTA and a cover over it all ..... the heat coming off a low energy bulb keeps the moisture at bay, if im going to use the scope then the bulb goes off in the morning to allow every thing to reach ambiant temp.

[hobsey]

I do as some have already said, leave caps off, keep at and angle plus I also do the same with the eyepieces.

I also leave the large dehumidifier on to help rid of any moisture.

[PeterCPC]

As said already but make sure you leave the scope pointing slightly down in case there is any dew inside the OTA which could run down to the mirror (if it has one).

Peter

[Moonshane]

it's certanly nothing to worry about but follow the above advice and you'll be fine.

[madala]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice.  It's amazing that the manufactures don't mention half of this stuff when you purchase it.

[JulianFR]

I've wondered this as well ... Bringing the cold scope indoors always worries me. With the Dob I leave the covers off overnight and the OTA pointing downwards. With the Mak and the frac I leave the dustcaps off and the diagonals out overnight on the assumption the moist air in the tubes needs to get out. I also put one of those little silica gel packs in the open end loosely. Is that worth it by the way, anti-moisture packs?

I also leave all the eyepieces uncapped overnight.

Hope I'm doing the right thing myself.

[tingting44]

same with me, i leave my scope pointing downwards and all bits and bobs out and the case's open to get air to them, also worth a mention is if your imaging with a DSLR leave that out too and also take the battery out of it along with the memory card

[rwilkey]

Like others, yes the tube gets covered in condensation when you bring it in, so I just wipe it down and check the lens is OK, I usually cover it then leave it to stand and check all is OK the next day.  Never had any problem with the lenses on the frac or the mirrors on the newt, it's usually just the tubes.

[scarp15]

Useful if you have a spare room that you can spread every item that has been been used, cases open, finder caps off, telrad out etc. The scope is tilted horizontal on the mount with the dust cover off, at least whilst I make a brew, eye pieces get the most attention the caps may stay off overnight. Needless to say, if the room has central heating, this needs to be turned down to minimum or off.