Camarillo Observatory - Founded 1992

Although the telescope is equipped with a heated dew cap, our local marine layer environment regularly produces humidity in excess of 90% on clear nights.  During our first years of observing, dew would slowly condense on the corrector plate, thus prematurely ending an observing session.  Therefore, a more aggressive dew-control system was needed.  This resulted in the only piece of custom hardware used at Camarillo Observatory, that is not otherwise available from a telescope dealer.

 

Having a remarkable resemblance to my wife's missing hair dryer, the custom defog system in mounted on a tripod in front of the telescope.  After the completion of an exposure sequence, the telescope is commanded to the "defog position", which is a point on the local meridian at a declination of -45 degrees, as shown here.
 

When the telescope reaches the defog position, the end of the dew cap gently touches a micro switch that activates the hair dryer.  A defog blast will normally last about 30 seconds, before moving on to the next target.
 

On a very humid night, the telescope will be literally dripping with dew - however, the optics are clear!
 

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Last modified: 10/24/04

Visitors since 2002 January 13