DEW

[hawk eye]

I brought my scope and ep case out the other night at 10pm and let it cool down for an hour. By 2am everything except the mirror and ep glass was covered in dew. Should I go for longer cooling down times or is this normal?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Pretty much normal. At least the mirror and EPs were dry.

[John]

I tend to keep my eyepieces, in their case, a bit warmer than the scope - if the eyepiece gets really cold it tends to mist up from your body heat as soon as you try and use it !.

[hawk eye]

good point!

[Ags]

I brought my scope and ep case out the other night at 10pm and let it cool down for an hour. By 2am everything except the mirror and ep glass was covered in dew. Should I go for longer cooling down times or is this normal?

Dew will only form once the scope has cooled down -while it is higher than ambient temperature, dew cannot form.

[brantuk]

If you don't have one then a shroud will help - and possibly a dew heater system at least for the secondary mirror.