Orion dew zapper, any good?

[old glyn]

Morning all, does anybody have any experience with the Orion dew zapper?

Would it also require a dew shield or will the zapper alone be sufficient. This is for my 6" schmitt cass.

Any advice or experience welcome.

Glyn

[brianb]

IMHO in the damp British climate SCTs need both active (heater strap) and passive (dew shield) dew prevention systems ... the various brands of heater straps & controllers all seem to be much of a muchness so far as effectiveness is concerned, though the expensive ones give better control which helps to save battery life & may help reduce tube currents when imaging or viewing planets at high power. A home made camping mat dew shield works better than most commercial ones, the insulation is helpful and you can make it long enough to be more effective than the commercial ones which tend to be much too short. A long dew shield also improves the tube balance of most SCTs, which tend to be very tail heavy.

[old glyn]

Thank you for your obviously expert advice, brianb. It is much appreciated. The dew shield aspect could be a problem for my Meade LS 6 as there is scant room for the zapper and the shield at one point on the periphery, plus the telescope points vertically down when turned off, leaving no room for the shield. I may be able to work around this by cutting a piece of the dew shield away, and then removing it after each viewing session. I have been quite shocked to see how much dew accumulates on my exposed telescope.