Help needed my telescope is wet.

[5haan_A]

Hi,

I came back from a two week holiday to find that my telescope was sweating. There was a sheen of water on the whole setup including the mount, legs, scope, camera. Everything

 

I had left it in my garage for two weeks whilst I was away. I had covered it completely in a plastic tarpaulin. My garage/shed isnt air tight, but it had never been an issue before. From what I can there has been a steady two week build up of condensation that has been unable to evaporate because of the tarpaulin. 

 

The result is that I have water everywhere. I have wiped of most of it on the outside. But looking through the lens it would appear that I also have some condensation inside the inner tube of the scope. 

 

I am also very concerned re the mount, the chip could be completely fried if I run any power through it. 

Thanks,

[5haan_A]

[DirkSteele]

It is critical to air dry the scope.  If you believe you have some condensation inside the OTA, then desiccated silica is your friend.  Something like this which can be inserted into the eyepiece end of the scope will help:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/flo-125-2-inch-desiccant-cap.html

I would bring the scope in from the garage if you can and allow it dry thoroughly over several days.  If you believe moisture has penetrated the mount you could open up the electrical housing so it can breath.  However, scopes / mounts are somewhat designed to operate in damp conditions given the difficulties we all experience with dew (don't throw it in a swimming pool though! 😉) and all should be OK once dried out.

 

[5haan_A]

[wrvond]

While effective, desiccant is slow to work. In this situation my response would be to set the telescope up in a spare room and run an electric dehumidifier for a day or two. This will have the benefit of removing all the moisture from the electronics as well as the OTA.

[5haan_A]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have been drying out with the suggested methods as much as possible.

It seems dry for the most part. I'll wait a couple more days to power it on, really dont want to risk damaging the mount.

I have encountered another problem though. The lens inside the OTA has these kind of blotchy spotty watermarks left over from the drying water. Any suggestions on the best way to remove them? Best in mind these are both on the side facing the inner tube and the side facing outside the tube.

 

 

[DirkSteele]

Do you mean the water spots are on the rear surface of the lens? i.e the side facing the focuser?  If so, there is no quick easy solution for that.  Can you post some photos focused on the spots so we can see how bad they are?

 

[5haan_A]

 

1 hour ago, DirkSteele said:

Do you mean the water spots are on the rear surface of the lens? i.e the side facing the focuser?  If so, there is no quick easy solution for that.  Can you post some photos focused on the spots so we can see how bad they are?

 

Yes there are some minor spots on the surface of the lens facing the back (focuser).

They are quite hard to photograph properly. The finderscope picture I posted is a good indication of the problem for the main scope. 

Edited August 14, 2019 by 5haan_A

[DirkSteele]

The only way to access to the rear lens would be to remove this lens assembly from the tube completely.  This is not something I would undertake lightly.  I am unfamiliar with the Espirit lenses so I am now sure how they attach.  I have had to remove one of the triplets of my LZOS scope before, but that is actually quite simple as it simply unscrews from a housing that acts as the bridge between the lens and the tube.  That bridge has the push / pull screws which are used to collimate the scope.  Fortunately upon reattachment, the scope remained perfectly collimated.

 

So the question would be, are you confident to remove the lens, clean the rear (there are guides on line on how to clean), and then reattach and possibly need to recollimate the scope?  If not, how bad are those spots?  If they small and not too numerous, they likely will have limited impact on performance.  Front surface lenses get lots of crud on them over time, and the advice is to rarely clean, if ever, as it won't impact performance much, but you could damage a lens far more (I did this once a while back).  The alternative, if you are concerned, or think it is impacting performance, is to source an optician who can do the work for you.  You could speak to the dealer that sold the scope to see if they can recommend someone.