Dew straps or hair dryer

[vince 66]

I'm thinking of getting some dew straps and a controler for my scope but I notce that alot of people use hair dryers what I want to know is if my corrector lense dews up and I remove the dew shield and lightly blow over it to remove the dew then replace the dew shield how long will it last before I have to do it again also there is a big difference in price between a hair dryer and dew straps and a controler so which would be the best road to go down.

[JohnC]

Having used the hair drier method i am now looking at buying dew bands and controller. Depending on conditions i have had the corrector clear from 20 mins down to 1 min!

in the long run i think that the more expensive option is the best.

[Beulah]

Does anyone know where I can buy a quiet hairdryer? I observe in my garden surrounded by neighbours and it gets VERY quiet at night, to the point where whenever I carefully remove my eyepieces, it makes a very loud scraping noise........

[BinocularSky]

I've never bothered with dew straps. I prefer to rely on decent length (i.e. >= 3.5x aperture) dew caps and use the hair dryer on the nights where it gets royally dewy. Mine is a Royal 12V (I got mine for £4, but that was about 12 years ago) -- it is not particularly noisy but, if you want silent, you'll have to go with dew straps.

[steve_bham]

I use the 12v hair dryer and a long dew shield. On sunday night the scope was wet on outside but it never dewed up so didnt even need to give it a blast with the dryer.

[Peter Drew]

I use both from time to time. In essence, dew strips prevent dew, hair dryers remove dew, i.e. too late.

[ollypenrice]

Dew straps are far better and will not thermally shock your corrector plate. You do not need a controller. I just plug in my strips to a 12 volt supply and leave them on. Imagers find that heating with a hair drier really throws out the focus for ages on refractors because the tube and lenses heat up and expand. By the time they settle they are wet again!

I used a hair drier for years and am now a vociferous convert to straps...

Olly

[Beulah]

Straps it is. Olly, you are a star.

[vince 66]

Do dew straps use much power ? would I need to carry a second power pack.