scope storage in outhouse?

[Astroblagger]

Hello i intend to move my scopes and gear from inside the house to my new outhouse (as we are moving house), im pretty sure its damp free and the roof doesnt leak. Do you think i require further protection as in a sealed storage cupboard etc to ensure there is no problems?

[Tinker1947]

It will be fine, already cooled down, i kept mine on a wooden base just to keep it off the concrete.....

[Earl]

You can get some large Plastic boxes with lids in most hardware stores these with a nice large Silica Gel pack work well

[Astrobits]

What is the difference between a shed and an observatory?

Telescopes permanently mounted in observatories are effectively "in a shed" and not normally protected further than a plastic dust sheet.

Nigel

[Earl]

Quiet a few observatorys do have soem forms of climate control installed where as a shed normally does not.

I have a dehumidifier ready to go in mine when it finally arrives........

[Skipper Billy]

I did some tests over the last 2 years on dehumidifiers.

In past winters we put them on all our 12 yachts when they came out of the water in November. (I am not showing off - its what we do - we have a yacht charter business!!)

Due to the ridiculous cost of electricity we tried an experiment over the last 2 winters.

First winter we put dehumidifiers on half the yachts and not on the others (these were just ventilated). Anecdotally there was very little difference between those with and those without.

Second winter we did the same as above but put heating on half the boats with dehumidifiers. We took moisture readings weekly from all boats.

The result was that a dehumidifier makes no difference at all if the temp is below about 12 degrees C. If it's above 12C it makes some difference but not much.

We now put no heating and no dehumidifiers on any boats. Just good ventilation.

The logical conclusion is that unless you are heating and dehumidifying then you may as well just ensure adequate ventilation. This also discourages beasties from setting up a nice warm home in your obsy!!!

Its far from a controlled experiment but enough for me to be happy to save £2400 a year in electricity (good for the planet and my Takahashi/Avalon savings tin!!) and maybe the results will be of interest to people considering keeping their gear in a shed/obsy???   

A word of caution though - the electronics on yachts are built to stand a very wet environment - from what I have seen of mounts - they aren't!!

[Ahab]

Hello i intend to move my scopes and gear from inside the house to my new outhouse (as we are moving house), im pretty sure its damp free and the roof doesnt leak. Do you think i require further protection as in a sealed storage cupboard etc to ensure there is no problems?

Just make sure the aperture isn't too large.

[Earl]

Interesting result for you there Skipper, and a substantial saving on maitenece to say the least.

Do they suffer from condensation ?

[Skipper Billy]

No problem with condensation as long as the hatches are locked in the 'vent' position.

The big BUT though is last winter was incredibly mild (for Scotland !)

[ghostdance]

Agree with all the above. I store my scope in its soft case in our old, cold but moisture-free shed, with just a couple of silica packets in the case and a plastic bag over the top of the OTA as a security measure in case that the roof ever does spring a leak. I also keep my alu eyepiece case in there too with another couple of silica packs. So far no problems at all. And as has been said, no cool-down period! Win-win.