Storing telescopes

[billydean]

Is it ok to store my telescope in my concrete shed?

What are the pros and cons for this action and will it have any detrimental on my scope.

[Charic]

........have any tools corroded in the shed in the past, or anything untowards affected anything else! if so let that be your guide?  But  If the conditions are dry, and the scope well covered, protected, to stop any ingress culminating in spider webs, dead insects and the like, then I see no harm in storing in the concrete shed.

One thing to note, it should be cooler, which helps offset any cooling times that most of us have to observe, like when moving the scope from indoors to outside.  My house is a comfortable 22°C , that' s with  no heating on?   but far cooler outside  at present.

[billydean]

Yes shed is dry plus I'm going to build its own storage area out of plastic that should keep the spiders at bay.

What about after viewing with my scope can I just pop the caps back and store straight away?

[triton1]

You would really want to let it dry first with the caps off so not to prolong it,dampness can cause corrosion.I store mine in the house and normally wait 30 mins before packing away.

[billydean]

As I'm storing mine in the shed should I take it into the house with caps off for it to dry for a bit then caps on to store it

[Charic]

.........with my Skyliner, when its extremely cold outside, I replace the main dust cap on the OTA omitting the smaller 2" cap, leave the scope at about +45°, just inside the door, then stow everything away when I get up in the morning.

As your storing your telescope in a concrete shed, its possibly still quite cool to cold inside, unless modified with heating, so there may not be a massive rise in temperature difference, therefore not much to dry out, unless your scope is totally dewed up!

Even with end caps in place, there is normally an air space around the primary mirror cell on a Newtonian, so air can still flow, but this is where the bugs get in. I use three plastic shower caps to seal my scope, one each end of the OTA, one over the focuser, then when stored, it sits fully assembled, upright, with a cotton bed sheet over cover and a heavy duty clear plastic cover over the sheet. As a new project I intend to build a corner cabinet to 'box-in' my scope in the corner of the room, with a few additional shelves for books and EP's.

[billydean]

Thanks Charic for your time and info it's helped me a great deal

[Coastliner]

Should a scope be stored with the RA and Dec clutches engaged or disengaged? Should the kit be allowed to "float" into its natural resting state during storage?

[ChrisLX200]

Should a scope be stored with the RA and Dec clutches engaged or disengaged? Should the kit be allowed to "float" into its natural resting state during storage?

Always with the clutches disengaged - never try to move the mount without releasing the clutches.

ChrisH