Best solution for fighting dew in a Takahashi E-160ed

Rafael Sampaio:
Hi everyone,

To avoid dew in a Takahashi E-160ed, would you prefer to use a rigid fiber carbon dew shied along with a dew heater, or a heated flexible dew shield like the ones from AstroZap ?

I use the heated AstroZap and it works great. I have to crank the agressiveness to 10 on my PPBU2 during the more humid months here in Virginia, but the heated AstroZap does the job.

Heated one, but order it from them made at 10". Then it won't protrude too far into the light path.

AstroZap has changed the default length to 10” for the Epsi dew shields, so should be good to order straight up.

Thanks everyone! 

So, does the Astrozap heated shield works with any 12v dew heater output, like the Eagle and  Pegasus Astro ones?

If you get a PPBUv2, I recommend this doodad: https://www.overcastobservatory.com/product/upbv2-piggyback-cable-management-system/

Those dew heater cables are annoyingly long, and this gives you a way to manage them, along with any other long cables.

Yuexiao Shen:

Rafael Sampaio:
Hi everyone,

To avoid dew in a Takahashi E-160ed, would you prefer to use a rigid fiber carbon dew shied along with a dew heater, or a heated flexible dew shield like the ones from AstroZap ?

If you want to run remote, better to use a rigid carbon dew shield so that you can add a motorized cap

Good point! Thanks!

Jeff Ridder:
I’m deploying mine remote with the AstroZap and not concerned with a cap. Yeah, it might accumulate a bit more dust, but that’s kind of inevitable. Not concerned with a flat panel either since sky flats are super easy with Voyager and work great.

Sky flats will correct things with this imaging system that panel flats will not. Similarly, the tube is semi-closed (not being a truss system), so capping it is probably a bad idea while it sits in the observatory with the roof closed. A rear fan should be used no matter what, but capping the front of the scope, IMHO is not a good idea.