TheSkySearchers

I’m considering an 11” EdgeHD for astrophotography. Right now I often image in the California desert with a 4” achromat, where dust and dew are in abundance. I’d install fans on the Edge to speed up the temperature equilibration, and I can imagine a lot of schmutz getting blown inside the Edge under these circumstances.

Have any of you desert imagers found this to be a problem? What’s the time frame for having to clean the corrector plate and mirrors? Is it a factory service job? Or as a DIY project, is it tough to get the reassembly right?

Thanks for any of your experiences and insights!

David

Not the kind of observer you’re looking for but I did have an Edge 9.25. It has ports for air exchange with filters that aren’t a DIY job according to advice I received when I bought it.

You could purchase a Cat Cooler to speed up acclimation.
If your telescope is still under warranty I would not pull it apart as it will void your warranty.
Taking one apart and putting together is not a hard job, just need to be methodical and replace everything exactly as you dismantled it.

I am a visual observer, but I would never use fans to blow stuff inside my 9.25" Edge. I would rather let it sit for a few hours to acclimate.

The option I see some imagers use is to thermally isolate the tube with a foam. Supposedly, it slows down acclimation to a crawl and one can observe or image without warring about it. I bought the foam, but have not try it yet.