I live
in the north of France. During clear night
of astronomy session after two hours out the corrector
plate of my Meade LX200 14" is cover by
dew. At that time it was impossible to go on observing
and doing imaging.
The dew became
rapidly a huge difficulty in so far as this problem
occurred in different seasons with different levels
of dew each time I went out.
Dew points indicate the amount moisture in the air.
Dew point temperature is defined as the temperature
to which the air would have to cool in order to reach
saturation. A state of saturation remains when the
air is holding the maximum amount of possible
water vapor. Therefore, should the air cool, moisture
will have to be removed from the air and this is accomplished
through condensation.
This process results in the formation of tiny water
droplets that can lead to the development of dew.
To avoid such problem there are two solutions,
which consist in either protecting the corrector
or heating it. In order to find the right solution
I searched and tested different possibilities on the
web. In this Tech-Note section I describe these different
existing possibilities from the first design to the
final success.