Basic finderscope anti/de-dewing solutions

[Guest MrsR]

Ok so being as Belper lat night and my finderscope dewing up pretty early has made me wonder about when viewing at home.

Would it be better when at home to a&e the hair dryer to it when dewed up on pop it back inside for 15 mins to clear itself?

Would making some sort of long plastic sheild round it help a little bit?

Sorry for the silly questions but trying to work out simple solutions till I get the cash to sort out properly.

[Brantuk]

A lot of folks make a scope dew shield from camping mat that you can pick up in a camping accessory shop for under a fiver - you'll probably do the finder as well with an offcut - highly recommended - the commercially made dew shields are silly money for what they are.

A hairdryer is a good idea meantime - but use low heat and blow round the tube rather than directly on glass or mirrors to avoid cracking with sudden temperature changes.

I doubt you'll want to be running in and out the house disassembling and reassembling the scope - I soon got fed up with that lark lol - a dew control system is the best thing for an uninterrupted session. Expect to spend around £120 new plus power source or go second hand and it can be done for around £60-£70 (plus power) for an elementary set up.

[+Graham]

As Kim has said use heater bands.

You can make these yourself for very very little money.

My blue Peter set up cost me a grand total of a couple of quid.

I used the heating elements from an old toaster to make the heater bands, this covers the heaters for the finder scope, the camera adapter and the guide camera.

I purchased a resister for £0.57p for the secondary mirror.

For the power supply I have used the 12 volt power pack from an old electric typwriter.

[cosmic dave]

As Kim has said use heater bands.

You can make these yourself for very very little money.

My blue Peter set up cost me a grand total of a couple of quid.

I used the heating elements from an old toaster to make the heater bands, this covers the heaters for the finder scope, the camera adapter and the guide camera.

I purchased a resister for £0.57p for the secondary mirror.

For the power supply I have used the 12 volt power pack from an old electric typwriter.

I like the sound of this,