Toasty Tele

[+bryand]

Since we are now well into the dew season, I decided to improve my dew control, and tidy up the wiring.  I use a counterweight-shaft mounted battery to power the heaters, and by Velcro-mounting the controller to the mount, I keep everything off the floor and rotating with the scope:

 

The controller is a motor controller from eBay which will handle up to 6 Amps, and my full monty is only 3.25 Amps.

 

 

The FLIR and flashlight images below show that the six tapes are all working and the main one on the scope's dewshield is possibly too hot compared to the rest.

I was particularly pleased with the pipe insulation for tidying up the cables.

 

 

 

Should keep my nose warm whilst observing!

Bring on the dew!!!

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by bryand

[Werisit]

Another big frac on an ioptron mount. Nice to see. I too have to use a height extension to stop the diagonal hitting the tripod legs.

Nice neat setup Bryan. I like that it all turns together. I'll have to look into that idea. Absolute necessity on a bad dewy night otherwise once the kit hits dewpoint temperature it's game over. I use an LED light dimmer with 3 separate control knobs to regulate power to my dew heaters.

Alan.

[+Ibbo]

Stick the kettle on Bryan, mines a tea milk no sigar please 😁

 

 

That should keep the dew off

[BAZ]

A very tidy job Bryan, the pipe insulation is a stroke of genius, both light and fully accessible.

The FLIR intrigues me too, how did you come by that?

[+Streetbob]

I like it. I am thinking of using Velcro to attach my “new” controller to either my mount or my counterweight shaft mounted battery. I had some spare pipe insulation now where did I put it..?

[+Derbyshire Dave]

That's a really neat setup there Brian, well done and thanks for sharing. Out of interest, what battery are you using and how long will that give you with your hefty set of bands...

[+bryand]

In case you were wondering, this is how the pipe insulation is held onto the telescope. One for Friar William of Occam, I think.

 

The FLIR camera is one of the original FLIR Ones, which has a lightning connector for my Ipad.  The newer ones have higher resolution and a price to match.

 

The batteries are Cyclon circular lead-acid batteries, rated at 2V and 8 Amp/hrs.  With the large dewshield tape shown in the pics the system draws 3.2 Amps, so the batteries would last 2 hours or so at full power.  I normally use them at about 50%, so double the duration.  Substituting a smaller dewshield tape reduces the draw to 1.8 Amps, so over 4 hours at 100%.

 

 

[Rusty Strings]

Very nice indeed, especially love the idea of a counterweight battery, any chance of a pic?

[+bryand]

To make a better fit for my mount, I turned the case from two Walnut discs.

 

In the foreground is the plastic iOptron version, which mine was based on. 

If you want to experiment, you can have the case for the cost of the postage.  It fits 20 mm or 28 mm counterweight shafts.

The bad news is that you'll need six 8 Amp/hr Cyclon batteries, which aren't cheap.

Edited October 31, 2021 by bryand