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SGLXII Chit Chat


cjdawson

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Hair dryers do the job well but just remember that the electricity supply at campsites is rather limited so I wouldn't be bringing a turbo type one. small wattage on low power or you may find yourself out of power :D

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For anyone wanting to know how to keep dew at bay, here's my full list of things to keep in your weapons locker.

 

1. keep the stuff under cover.  If it's covered up, it's less likely to dew up.

2. keep it in your pocket.  Your body heat will keep it dew free.

3. Hand warmers.   There's lots of types. Single use, Gel, Electric, Lighter fuel powered and Burning sticks.    All keep things warm, for varing amoungs of time.

4. 12v hair dryer.  These pull alot of amps, so use sparingly.

5. Dew heaters.  aka Dew bands.  With a good controller, it's a very economical (power wise) way of keeping dew at bay.

6. Dew shield.      This one is for the scope optics only (ish)

 

 

Now here's the best part.  You don't have to use just one of the things that I listed above.    I combine a Dew shield and Dew heater on both my main and guide scope to keep dew at bay.  The heater does not have to work anywhere near as hard as it would if there was no shield in place.   The 12v hair dryer is for those times when I set it too low and things dew up on my.  Saves the night.    The hand warmers, as for me rather than the scope, they work great and are extremely useful.

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Keep it on the low setting mate. You don't want to generate your own column of hot turbulent air. Make sure it has a fail safe to switch off when it falls over.

Mine was about £10 from b&m. Ensure it works first, long way trek to take it back. 

Don't know about telly, I take a portable DVD player down. Never used it as the wife doesn't camp and I'm too busy chatting or observing and hacking the icicles of the inside of the tent.

I do hope everyone using ehu connections outdoors accounts for the very heavy dew ,that being near the river  makes it so dire,

heres to clear beer and clear skies !

old Nick.

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I did feel slightly ashamed when I purchased a low wattage camping heater for SGLXI. What a difference it made!

Despite the kill switch, I wouldn't leave it on when I'm asleep or not in the tent. But, even with a few quick blasts, it kept the damp at bay as much as sorting out the temperature.

Unfortunatally, my beer got warm. 

Paul

 

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2Kw heater running at full power will use about 8.5Amps.  So you'll have 1.5 left on your RCD for everything else.  Obviously running at lower power will give you more amps to play with.  And you'll most likely be running the heater at 1kw or even 500w for most of the time.

 

As for the heavy dew problem.  I've setup my system to run everything from a 70Ah battery. With the whole scope setting running at full power, it'll use about 5 amp max - and more likely about 2amp for 90% of the time.  Even allow for tempurature shifts and things, I'd expect to be able to run the scope for about 35Ah worth of power, so that would be a 17 Hour observing session, even if it drops to 12 hours, that's enough to get me through the night.    Next morning when I don't need to run much electric, I can plug into a battery charger and get everything charged up again for the next session.

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That's the way to go. I take 70 and 100 Ah leisure batteries. I really don't like electricity connections running across heavy dew, especially at this site near the cursed river.

Best err on the very cold side for camping, it's already been chill enough observing for the down jacket.

Nick.

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Hehe. I'm going to be staying in a Caravan.    I'm thinking about altering my setup (again) so that rather than running the scope from it's own 12v supply, I'll run everything off the 110Ah battery in the caravan.  With EHU, that means I'd not need to worry about recharging.  In addition, it means that I'll get 1/2 my car boot back as well as saving 30Kg is cargo space.

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10 hours ago, Paul73 said:

I did feel slightly ashamed when I purchased a low wattage camping heater for SGLXI. What a difference it made!

Despite the kill switch, I wouldn't leave it on when I'm asleep or not in the tent. But, even with a few quick blasts, it kept the damp at bay as much as sorting out the temperature.

Unfortunatally, my beer got warm. 

Paul

 

Paul can I suggest that for your next star party you leave the heater at home and bring a mini fridge and an extra pair of socks. You may be slightly chilly but your beer will be very cool and you'll be obliviously happy.!

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1 hour ago, Sirius Starwatcher said:

Paul can I suggest that for your next star party you leave the heater at home and bring a mini fridge and an extra pair of socks. You may be slightly chilly but your beer will be very cool and you'll be obliviously happy.!

Very clear thinking that man!!!

I rekon that with some tactical Dew heater redeployment, that I can stay warm enough. And, enjoy cold beer.

Possibly what they refer to as a 1st world problem.

Paul

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Forget fan heater - a Oil electric radiator is where it's at! Get one that can switch between 800W, 1600W and 2400W. Keep in the inner lined area (i.e. bed area) and the heat remains in there rather than getting people annoyed with heat plumes as you can sit there with just at 800W and the timer can be set so it stays off then when you're expecting to go to bed you can pre-empt your arrival :D

Also a IR heater works but careful as most have a minimum distance without causing burns to bare legs when in the confines of the tent.

Remember an air mattress will still be cold.. so put some metallic loft/wall insulation between your sleeping bag and the mattress to reflect your heat back..

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