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How do you keep your telescope/equipment after a night's use


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Hi all,

As per the title - just curious as to how everyone keeps there telescope/equipment after a cold night's use.

I currently bring the scope indoors and place it tube-down without caps on. I leave the finder and guide scope on the main telescope (also with caps off) and leave the guide and imaging camera in situ also.

Mount, asiair and the 45 miles of cabling come inside also. everything is left to sit overnight until dry then all scope caps go back on, camera caps go back on and it all goes away until the next clear skies!

 

Thanks,

Jonny

 

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I let it defog if it was cold out then leave it in my basement or what my wife calls "the dungeon",  where I can hide toys since she rarely wanders down there. It is an expansive and unfinished for habitation concrete walled bunker below grade. She saw a mouse down there once, screamed like a banshee and never went down again, great spot to hide my toys.

Edited by Sunshine
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Currently using a very small, light scope (seriously over-mounted) on an EQ6R Pro, so am just about able to move the whole lot in one go.

Routine is: caps on, unplug power and data cables from mount and camera, move whole setup straight from the garden into the dining room (which is quite poorly insulated, so tends to be a fair bit colder than the rest of the house), then do a second trip for the cables and laptop.

Edited by The Lazy Astronomer
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1 hour ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

Currently using a very small, light scope (seriously over-mounted) on an EQ6R Pro, so am just about able to move the whole lot in one go

Wow, that’s a serious workout 🏋️‍ respect  

I have the same mount but I wouldn’t attempt to lift it, even stripping it down at 1am is too much so I leave it out on a semi permanent basis under a tg cover....also saves on polar alignment 

Edited by Jiggy 67
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Turn Telrad off.

Move telescope and Denver chair into side building.

Fit covers to Zoom, wide-angle EPs and barlow. Put into case.

Fit covers to finder and focuser but not OTA. 

Tilt OTA down and loosely cover with sheet. 

Take sketch pad, pencil and printed maps inside house.

In the morning, turn OTA to vertical and fit end cover.

Come up with excuse(s) as to why I brought up mud and leaves inside.

Edited by Spile
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I normally leave the main scope and guidescope (if imaging) in an un-heated room with caps off until next morning. Then cap on and back inside the bags. As for eyepieces I usually put the caps back on as soon as I finish using one, so they all go back into the storage room as soon as the whole session ends. For the cheaper finderscope I normally don't worry about the dew and it goes back to the storage along with the eyepieces.

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If the dewpoint is quite low outside compared to inside my house (often the case during winter here), I'll cap my eyepieces and close my airtight cases before bringing them in to prevent them from instantly dewing over.  If it's damp outside, I'll bring them in uncapped and open cased to let them dry out before storage.

The scope(s) are brought in uncapped in either case because they're not airtight.  I don't want moisture inside the house accumulating on them while capped and not temperature equalized.

Finders come off before bringing in the scope(s) to avoid catching them on the door frame.

I generally carry the scope(s) and associated mount in one go since they're under 50 pounds.

Edited by Louis D
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  • 11 months later...

Take scope it off its tripod and heft it into the dining room. Squat down to get its base on the floor nearly splitting trousers in the process (12" SCT). Level the scope and put its chin on one of the dining room chairs, towel off any dew  and put my coat over it to slow warming up process, often to  " You look after that flipping  thing better than me" commentary from my good lady.

Bring in the other bits and tripod, wipe down tripod quite a bit as  it dews up almost instantly when bringing into room after a cold winters night. Normally leave kit in dining room and pack away following day, or day after... or maybe the day after that, but definitely when the tortoise starts trying to mount it.

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  • 1 month later...

My scope lives in my uninsulated unheated garage.  At the end of the session I just push it back into place and aim it down for the night.

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On 03/03/2021 at 00:17, Louis D said:

If the dewpoint is quite low outside compared to inside my house (often the case during winter here), I'll cap my eyepieces and close my airtight cases before bringing them in to prevent them from instantly dewing over.  If it's damp outside, I'll bring them in uncapped and open cased to let them dry out before storage.

The scope(s) are brought in uncapped in either case because they're not airtight.  I don't want moisture inside the house accumulating on them while capped and not temperature equalized.

Finders come off before bringing in the scope(s) to avoid catching them on the door frame.

I generally carry the scope(s) and associated mount in one go since they're under 50 pounds.

This is sort of what I do, a two stage approach. Assuming equipment is not damp already, I'll make sure everything is fastened shut so it doesn't instantly dew over, and leave it inside cases for about an hour in the spare room which is a touch cooler than the rest of the house. Once it's had a bit of time to take the edge off the cold, everything comes out of the cases with caps off overnight. 

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Bringing cold glass back into a warm room often causes condensation. Putting caps on can trap the moisture so that it persists. Over time, that can lead to fungal growth. Allowing free flow of air, and the warming of equipment overnight, allows the moisture to evaporate.

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That's why I only cap eyepieces in my airtight cases while outside.  The air sealed inside is very dry and only slowly humidifies long after the eyepieces have warmed.  Eyepieces, diagonals, finders, and OTAs not sealed in airtight cases are left uncapped in open cases to warm up to prevent fungal grown.  20+ years of practical experience later, and I've not had any evidence of fungal grown on anything.

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Further to @Louis D comment.
Cold air holds very little moisture. Warm (house) air can hold a lot of of moisuture with condensation.

Bring your cold dry scope, mount and tripod into the house and immediately there is condensation on the outside.
A result of the warm moist air chilling when encountering the scope.

What happens inside a scope? The air in there is (near enough) dry.
With a sealed (or all but sealed) scope like a refractor, SCT, etc. with eyepiece capped, the cold dry air remains in the scope.
As it warms, all is OK.
At the other extreme, if you bring in a newtonian with the end cap off, it readily exchanges air with the room and you immediately get condensation inside.

When I used to store my relector in the house, I always brought it rapidly up to house temperature by using a hair dryer - everywhere.
The moving air encouraged evaporation and the hot air made the process quick.

Since building my shed, the @jacko61 system has worked well!
On nights where there has been condensation on the scope (due to outside effects) the trusty hair dryer for a couple of minutes has helped.

HTH, David.


 

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I bring my dob in in two bits, capped to prevent damage. Once inside, I remove all caps and leave it pointing down on the base. I usually stick the fan on to get a good airflow.....whether this is a good or bad idea, I'm not sure, but it seems to work OK.

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Very glad that I have read this post.

I have only had my dob for a short while, however I have been bringing it straight back into a relatively warm living room, pooping all caps on and parking it upright in the corner of the room - I will be following the advice above going forwards!

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I’ve always popped caps on before bringing telescopes into the house. Having taken a peek on a couple of occasions I’ve noticed the lenses haven’t misted up, which they undoubtedly do if caps left off. I’ve been doing this for well over ten years with some scopes and never noticed any fungal growth.  I wonder whether it’s one of those things that don’t really matter ether way. 

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