telescope care after use

just had my scope out for an hour before the clouds rolled in. still have no clue how to use it, and it seems to be badly collomated, or maby the seeing was terrible ( i hope). anyway, when i was putting it away, it was covered in dew. i wiped the scope, but didnt touch the corrector plate. is that ok? im also leaving it in the garrage, so it will be dry, but in thermal equilibrium if i get a clear spell over the weekend. should it be kept inside or is it cool to leave it in the garrage ( cool, get it!!). looking forward to the next observing session in dub so as to get pointers and tips from all you expirienced guys.

DO NOT cover the corrector plate when it is damp. You MUST let it dry before covering it. You can accellerate this with a hairdryer on it's LOWEST setting. Do not put the hair dryer too near the corrector plate. It only needs to be slighly warmer that the surrounding air.

If it is a new SCT it is very unlikely to be mis-collimated.

DO NOT cover the corrector plate when it is damp. You MUST let it dry before covering it.

I drape a light curtain over the scope, not touching the corrector!, just to keep the dust off while the dew goes away.

garage should be fine if its dry. If tools in the garage are in good shape and show no signs of corrosing then the scope will more than likley be ok.

thanks guys. just went out and dried it off with a hair drier. yea tools in the garrage are all more or less fine( considering some of them are there over 20 years).

fguihen wrote: just had my scope out for an hour before the clouds rolled in. still have no clue how to use it, and it seems to be badly collomated, or maby the seeing was terrible ( i hope). /quote]

What's more likely is that the dew gradually built up on the corrector. Being more used to a Dob, I hadn't realised just how quickly dew on can reck an SCT observing session. Buy or make a dew shield it'll give you some extra time.

Hi

I usually use a dew shield which reduces the dew problem somewhat.

I just noticed that I have some tiny white spots on the corrector plate. I always presumed that these were just the normal imperfections in the reflective coatings as they seem to be part of the corrector lense and not just crud/dirt.

I wonder does anyone else have these on their corrector plate.