Suggestions for battling dew

[prowler75]

Hi Friends!

While my new backyard has offered me a tremendous improvement in open sky one thing I am going to have to persistently battle is dew. We have a stream with some wetland type area down the hill behind our house and I have yet to not have a morning where I wake up to everything being wet. My last observing session was severely cut short dew to the appearance of the dreaded dew monster so I am now looking at putting together good solution to the problem.

I have been very lucky in the past to have not had to deal with dew problems so I want to solicit suggestions for anyone who observes from heavily dew prone areas. What equipment/brands do you suggest?

I am looking for some quality, but economics are also a consideration. Power from home is going to be of minimal issue since I can run extension cords right off my back porch, but if I am going to invest in something it might as well be portable as well.

Thoughts or suggestions anyone?

Thanks,

Craig

[Lady Fraktor]

Do you have a dew heater? They are always handy to have.

[pakarinen]

I use chemical hand warmers held on the dew shield with a rubber band. Probably not a green thing to do, but I don't need them very often. And no electricity needed.

[seer]

I have started doing early mornings in stead of just early evenings and I ran into encountering dew also. I was amazed at how fast it forms. I was looking into if maybe timing could be used. The weather app I use shows the predicted dew point and temperature. It looks like when they get close that's when it happens.

[Lady Fraktor]

That is exactly what happens Donald, once the temperature and dewpoint are the same it forms.
All you want to do is keep the optics one or two degrees above the dewpoint so it does not form on the optics.

You can use dew heaters, a 12v dryer or pretty much anything that is going to keep the air layer in front of the optics slightly warmer.

[prowler75]

Thanks All,

I am definitely looking at dew heaters. I thought about just going with a 12v hairdryer, but I want to stay quiet and not risk waking the dogs.

[Graeme1858]

I was surprised how quickly dew can make a session come to a disappointing end when I switched from a dob to an SCT.

So I got one of these:

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/as ... ields.html

I thought the problem would be gone but dew still forms after a while when the temperature hits the dew point, especially when viewing near the zenith.

A 12V hairdrier has to be the next step! Sounds like a good idea, I've heard of it but haven't tried it.

Regards

Graeme