Aghhhh Moon and dew.

[Doc]

This is ruining my night and it's only 20.00.

The Moon and dew.

The moon is stopping me seeing these faint fuzzies and my eyepieces and diagonal keep dewing up.

AGhhhhhhhh.

It's annoying me.

Is anyone else suffering from dew problems

[GeoffM]

I am struggling too, temperature's dropped below freezing, and there's frost on the dewsheild and tube. my coffee cup has frozen to the table, think I might call it a night soon.

[thing]

My scope is still plugging away (hopefully) on IC342, just about to take the darks. Been round my mates for the last hour having a few beers and it has become exceedingly frosty in the meantime.

[asteria]

I had heavy dew down my way, but not a bad night. Got pretty cold and I've just packed up. The sky was fairly good, about average I'd say. Ed

[Ant]

it was plus 0.5c when I came home at 8pm. So I guess it's well below that now.

About to go out and see what the LP is like. Dew and LP and the moon may alter the target.

Good luck for all those out tonight.

Ant

[kev 102 42]

my luck ran out thats all im saying on the subject :knob: .......kev

[kniclander]

Problems with dew only on the finder which was easily dealt with. My real problem tonight was that I could see more of the Auriga open clusters through my 20x80 binos than through my 10" dob cos of LP . I have heard that larger aperture scopes actually suffer worse from LP and I am beginning to believe it...what do others think? if it goes on like this there might be a big dob in the For sale section soon.

Doc, don't mean to hijack your thread but if we're having a moan, I'm in.

[Doc]

Just packed in for the night.

Rubbish tonight. And I'm not sure why.

Yes there was dew and moon but the skies looked good but seeing was rubbish. Looked at M38 this normally sparkles but the stars were all really feint.

Looked at my primary when I bought scope back indoors and it was completely dewed up, never seen it like that before.

Oh well.

[Doc]

Dan we just doubled posted.

I have to agree with you Auriga clusters were terrible tonight.

Big dobs do suffer terribly from LP, I'm hoping one day to be able to afford a LP filter and give this ago.

I've got alot of money invested in this scope so can't sell mine just yet.

On good nights my 16" excells on clusters tonight was just a bad night.

Main reason was dew on both primary and secondry I think

[James]

No dew problem here - just sheets of ice on everything :toothy9: . Kit is still working though but my fingers are beginning to go cold!

James

[DM]

I spent some time in the back garden with the Mak - thought I would be clever and leave it out to cool while I did kiddies bathtime etc. Finally got going and it all seemed good for about 30mins. Then I started noticing difficulty in getting good focus - the wee 127 Mak is usually really sharp and contrasty. Sure enough, the corrector lens was pretty badly dewed up - aaarghh. Went back out with 15x70 bins, but the moonglow and light pollution didn't help too much. Still able to get M81 and M82, but overall not the greatest night.

Guess it is horses for courses, and the wee Mak might not be the best for extended nights in the frost - even with a dewshield.

Hope there were lots of folks having better luck than us!

Cheers

David

[russ]

Dew was a nightmare for the first part of the night. The ED80 lasted 30mins and for the first time the secondary went on the starfinder. I took the hair dryer to them both and the dew kept at bay on the dob for the remainder of the night. But the ED kept on dewing up.....very annoying. Not that it mattered, i was bored with the ED after 30mins anyway. Used it at the start for the moon and at the end for Saturn.

[kniclander]

hi Doc, only just read your post. maybe my primary was dewed up too - it was certainly chilly last night....

I won't flog the dob just yet.

re filters, I've only ever used a Baader Neodymium which is good for Jupiter but doesn't seem to do too much for anything else. My impression from reading reviews of filters is that the filters for emission Nebulae work really well but the LPR filters are less effective - there are some good reviews on cloudy nights.

I might put a filter in my letter to Santa but not sure which one yet... :scratch:

Dan

[Doc]

Cheers guys at least I'm not the only one who suffered.

Did look up some elusive moon objects see moon observation section for details.

Wanted to try tonight but looks like high cloud.