telescope in cold garage.. ok?

[lennoxlude]

hello. i was thinking of buying a telescope in the near future, and i was thinking is it ok keeping the telescope in a cold garage, or would it get damaged?

the telescope probably will be a 150p skywatcher and by the looks of it, it'll be quite heavy aswell.

thanks.

[haitch]

That should be fine so long as it is dry and not too dusty in there.

Keeping it in a cold place will mean less time reaching ambient temperature when you take it out.

It should also mean condensation is likely to form on the mirror when bringing it in but if it does form you may want to keep a hair dryer handy as it may not evaporate so readily in the garage.

Cold air holds less moisture than warm air so unless it feels damp in there it is probably drier than in your house.

[John]

Thats a good place to keep a scope as long as it's dry. Keep the tube openings covered to prevent spiders making a home in the tube - it has happened to more than one SGL member and it's darned hard to get a spiders web out of your tube without marking the optics !

[Merlin66]

I keep some of my gear in the garage... my wife gave me the choice ...either those d@*& telescopes go out there..or you do!

I have an old electric towel heater next to the mount/ telescope and drape a couple of sheets over both the heater and the scope... keeps it nice and warm, and dry....

Ken

[glowjet]

Buy or make a simple chipboard cabinet to suit, you could even line it out, screw it on the wall out of the way of the car, to complete the job put in some large packs of

Silica Gel to keep the moisture out.

John.

[Merlin66]

What!!

A car in the Garage! No way!

There's no room in there with all the telescopes!

Ken

[lennoxlude]

the garage isn't damp. i was more worried about the coldness forming condensation. i didn't think about the spiders, but that's a very good thought. what about putting a blanket over the telescope? it won't stop the spiders, so i'll just have to cover the holes up aswell.

thanks for the quick replies.

[yeti monster]

So long as all openings are well sealed. then the spiders will go elsewhere to catch their food.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I keep my stuff in the garage. I built a kind of flight-case for my C8, and keep it dry by plonking in any bag of silica-gel I happen to find in any item I buy. My little Newtonian is just next to it, and simply keeping the covers on prevented any spiders (or dust) from getting in.

[Bizibilder]

I built a conti board box for my scope in the garage. It has worked very well with no problems - the trick is to seal the door with draftproofing foam to keep the Kreepy-Krawlies out!!

(You'll find a couple of pictures in m'blog - see the signature)