Mak and dew/frost

[dark star]

I have a 6 inch Intes MK66 Mak.  The night before last I was looking at Mars for a few hours. I eventually managed to see a little bit of detail on Mars after putting a dew heater band on to the eyepiece. But this was after a couple of hours and it seemed to take around one and a half hours to get rid  of the dew on the eyepiece. I have a Kendrick dew controller.  The Mak is kept in an unheated shed, in a flexible cloth case with padding.

I have wrapped the Mak in  reflective insulation material.  There still seemed to be some minor problems with the corrector dewing or icing.  The mak already has a dew shield. But I added a longer one using an old camping mat, this seemed to help a lot. The Mak corrector seemed be dew free. But it was hard to tell for sure using a torch in the dark. Plus most of the time the telescope was pointing high up at Mars, which made it harder to see the corrector.

Do people think I should get  a dew strip to put under the insulation to heat the corrector when it is really cold like it was last week? Just to be on the safe side. Nest time I will put a dew band on the eyepiece as soon as I start observing.

David

 

 

 

[Alkaid]

Yes, a dew heater strip around the corrector will sort that.  The same happened to me with my SCT.

[dark star]

Thanks for thre reply. I am now debating which dew band for 6 inch telescopes to buy. Or possibly making my own. But given that I have limited amounts of free time I will probably buy.

[Swoop1]

I use a dew shield with an integrated heater strap similar to this one-

Lynx Astro Heated Flexible Dew Shield for 6" Telescopes | First Light Optics

Works fine on my SCT.