Is it a good idea to leave the gear outside under a cover in UK/German weather?

I live in Florida, and have had my imaging rig permanently set up in the backyard for 4 years with no problem.  The rig is a 4” refractor on Ioptron CEM60, covered first with an Orion Scope Cloak and then Telegizmos 365.  

I can’t comment on winter weather, but have had no trouble with summer heat and humidity.

I have mine permanently outside and have no issues. Crucially however, my EQ6 stands on a mobile pier, this one:



I cover the whole shebang with a beaten-up geoptics bag.

Inside, I put a chemical moisture absorber, this one:


and tighten the bag on the pillar with a piecie of elastic rope.

But wait! That is not all :-) I have a custom-made, very thick (500g/m2) PVC bag that I put on top, which can withstand everything, save for some seriously devastating hail:

Two scopes in my backyard, year and a half under telegizmos covers, no issues.    Just spiders on occasion.  For humidity control I just leave them plugged in with the minipc running to provide a little heat.

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andrea tasselli:
10+ years, UK weather (northern UK), no problema.

Hi Andrea,

UK weather is a great benchmark :-)

Do you use a chemical drying agent like Herbert inside?

Arny

Arny,
I have 5" and 8" Skywatcher mounts on a pillar mount with a Telegizmos 365 cover tightly closed at the bottom with a bungee cord. Inside I have 2 tins of silica gel and a remote electronic unit displaying temp and RH upstairs. When the RH > 80% I replenish the silica gel. If I don't do this then the mirror gets condensation on it. I leave is out all year and often put it away with dew on top of the scope which I dry off best I can at the end of or during the night. I live near the sea in S Devon.

Here with a moderate climate, my mount with all the equipment, telescope and camera, lives in my backyard protected by a Telegizmos 365. To avoid humidity it is important that the cover does not cover everything down to the ground, but is a few centimeters above the ground to allow air to circulate.

It is also important to have a cheap cover as a first layer, I use a medium thick grill cover. Its purpose is not to protect the equipment, but the inner layer of the Telegizmos that can be damaged by the sharp edges that our equipment usually has.

4 years now running Telegizmos 365 on my rigs. They have experienced +47C down to -41C , heavy downpours, thick forest fire smoke, and heavy snow. Still running strong with no issues.


Dan.

I have mine permanently outside and have no issues. Crucially however, my EQ6 stands on a mobile pier, this one:



I cover the whole shebang with a beaten-up geoptics bag.

Inside, I put a chemical moisture absorber, this one:


and tighten the bag on the pillar with a piecie of elastic rope.

But wait! That is not all :-) I have a custom-made, very thick (500g/m2) PVC bag that I put on top, which can withstand everything, save for some seriously devastating hail:

I have something similar which is normally for trucks. Filters for humidity does not really help. Normally this kind of filter gets full in one night of high humidity. I would buy a heater cable which is normally for water pipe. You can buy it from Amazon. I have only my mount outside. My scopes are inside

I have an EQ8-R

​​​​​​
CS,
Raul

West  of Ireland so similar but probably wetter than you get. Rarely below -5C In winter. But very humid with heavy dew. I have 2 rigs left out all the time on Todmorden Piers. NEQ6, LX200, various refractors, astro cams and DSLRS. I cover with Telegizmozs 365, closed at bottom with ratchet straps. I use 1kg bags of gel dessicant under the covers (sold on amazon for placing in your car) and monitor temp and humidity with a Bluetooth monitor which connects to my phone (also amazon) . When humidity in the closed cover goes above 80% I regenerate the dessicated by cooking in microwave for 10 mins.

I drive the rigs remotely from inside my house via mini pc on the pier side and I bring the mini pc in after use, but that's only because I use the PCs inside for other jobs. I don't belive they would suffer by being left out so long as the humidity stays below 80%.

Going on 2 years with absolutely no issues.

I was also wary about leaving the equipment outside (Northern Italy)
I started with the mount and the tripod. After few months, everything is still good and working fine.
I'm using a Geoptik cover and a cotton blanket. Never had any humidity issue so far.
My weather:
* hot , humid summer: max 35/36C, with 65/70% humidity.
* cold, dry but also humid winter: min -8/10C, 35% humidity during the day, 85/90% during the night.
* lots of rain in autumn and spring
* rare catastrophic events, luckily.

What I have to do is keeping and eye on the weather during summer. This summer we had hail that was ~18cm in diameter. Yep, eighteen centimeters. There's no cover for that xD
But, luckily, those are rare events. I just have to be lucky enough to be at home before those happens

I bring everything inside only when such events or strong wind is forecasted.

Up until now I never left outside my camera and scope for more than 8/10 days. But now I'm getting tired of bringing everything in and balancing again every time I setup. So next time I mount everything, I will also keep the rest outside. Let's see how it will go.

The telegizmos 365 is a very heavy duty cover with a high spec for water resistance. It has an inner reflective lining which the manufacturer claims reduces the chance of heating up under the cover. I don't know if I buy that one.

The material is very strong so is resistant to significant wind also.

They are not cheap but to my mind the quality and functionality justifies the expense. I need this to protect several thousand Euro worth of equipment. I don't see much point in scimping to save a few Euro.

I agree. I went with the Geoptik one because it was way cheaper (55€). Been happy so far. Cover is still intact and not losing bits or else.