An unlikely pairing.... and condensation problems!

Hello to all

I've had my Explorer 130P since last May. Before this time I'd only ever
dreamed of owning a scope so as a rank amateur I've had a lot of really
valuable help from this group - thank you.

It has taken me time to learn that instant action and the short term "fixes"
that this brings is really second fiddle to results achieved with proper
preparation (cool down time, planning etc). I now feel I'm a bit more
structured in my approach.

I live in Liverpool UK and clear skies are something of a rarity at this
time of year, however today showed great promise so I prepared my kit - I
wasn't disappointed! As the moon is full I planned to do a lot of lunar
observing, I was also keen to view Saturn again and hoped to be able to see
these two together at the same time as they converged.

Obviously general viewing was marred somewhat by the moonlight, however I
still had a fine old time. Saturn looked great - I've just got a new 4mm EP
and found that not having to use my X3 Barlow/10mm combo gave a slightly
crisper image. My teenage daughter is visiting me at the moment and this was
the first time she had chance to share the views - she was blown away!

As the pair moved closer I fully expected to loose site of Saturn as it
became obscured by the moons brightness - how wrong I was. It was my turn to
be blown away when I found that I could get these two in the same field of
view with perfect clarity (at least for a rookie) using my 10mm EP.

I'm sure most of you are relatively familiar with such a sight, but I just
couldn't get enough of it! Brilliant!

Now that I've come back down to earth, it's time for me to beg your advice
again. I found tonight that my scope got really wet with condensation. My
EP's were constantly steaming up - this I managed by gentle wiping with a
lens cloth. But I also found that my secondary mirror steamed up quite a
bit! I'm sure its bad practice but the only way round this was to use the
cloth again very carefully on the mirror! Is this just something that I have
to learn to live with or is there another way round it?

I'd be very grateful if anyone can share their tips or rules of thumb with
regards to this.

Many thanks

Steve



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