Edge without dew shield

Hi, I have my C9.25 EdgeHD at a remote site in Spain and I am successfully using the Celestron aluminum dew shield plus Celestron Dew Heater ring with it. I mounted a well-sized "Excalibur" flat panel from RBFocus (Spanish company) directly to the dew shield, which avoided using those huge and heavy dovetails. The panel is firmly mounted using a sticky pad plus two large zip ties araound the dew shield. This combination works very well for me, I can use the panel for my flats and I never had any problems with dew so far.

https://en.rbfocus.net/product-page/rb-focus-excalibur-pre-orden

Jerry Gerber:
Hello,

I am still thinking about placing an Edge H 9.25 on a 10 Micron GM1000 mount at a Bortle 1-2 site in New Mexico. 

Taking flats with a flip-flat is important to me (and having a cover over the corrector plate).  Wanderer Astro makes such a cover for this scope.   But this means I can't use a dew shield.

Will the Celestron heater ring (plus a dew strap if necessary) be sufficient to deal with dew?  It''s not often that the humidity gets very high, but it occasionally does.

My other concern is imaging without a dew shield to block stray light.   If these two concerns prove to be inconsequential, I'll get the scope, if not, I won't.

Would love to hear from those Edge owners!

Thanks,
Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1T1DzY3I7Y8IJjOJXEqHIg

I had exactly the same setting with Edge 9.25” and 10 microns in facilities not far away from you, in DSNM. Used Astrozap heating dew shield. Asked them to make it 2” shorter. Took Sky flats near Polaris; never had problems.
The major problems are: 1. Wind. Dew shield was acting like sailing sheet. 2. Seeing in places near Animas. I always got chromatic effects on bright stars. No matter how I collimated scope, red and blue split due to atmospheric turbulence. Only images 60 degree above horizon were more or less fine. 3. Incredible dust! Cleaning is needed every 2-3 months. 
Possible solution could be to get 8-12” RC or DK solid tube scope and forget about dew shield and get flip-flat panel, which is produced by several companies.
Clear Skies!
Armen

Ashraf AbuSara:

Jerry Gerber:
Hello,

I am still thinking about placing an Edge H 9.25 on a 10 Micron GM1000 mount at a Bortle 1-2 site in New Mexico. 

Taking flats with a flip-flat is important to me (and having a cover over the corrector plate).  Wanderer Astro makes such a cover for this scope.   But this means I can't use a dew shield.

Will the Celestron heater ring (plus a dew strap if necessary) be sufficient to deal with dew?  It''s not often that the humidity gets very high, but it occasionally does.

My other concern is imaging without a dew shield to block stray light.   If these two concerns prove to be inconsequential, I'll get the scope, if not, I won't.

Would love to hear from those Edge owners!

Thanks,
Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1T1DzY3I7Y8IJjOJXEqHIg

Hey Jerry. Why can't you use the flat panel with the dew shield? As long as you are using the aluminum dew shield, you should be able to easily strap the flat panel on the end of the dew shield just like you would on the OTA. I have used a Wanderer Astro Flat panel with my Epsilon that way.

As to the dew heater ring, it should be sufficient for Animas, but it can introduce problems with star shapes if it is over 40% pwm. 

​​

I don't think that would work.  I have experience with that dew shield, it's heavy and bulky and does not attach securely to the scope, it uses two clips on both sides and I could never get it to feel 100% secure.  I think also that the 280mm flip-flat would make that much more a problem.  As AnaTa mentioned, the dew shield acts as a wind sail.  

It may be that your Epsilon has a better method of attaching the dew shield to the scope, Celestron's method, I know from experience, is just not going to cut it with a flip-flat that weighs over 2 lbs and has its weight distributed unevenly when the cover is fully open.

I guess my question really is now about light leaks--not using any dew shield means stray light can hit the corrector plate.   It may not be a problem, I am not sure, particularly in a Bortle 1-2 site.

Hi,
I have been using a Celestron heather ring, and only this, for 2 years now and have never had a problem with dew, even in winter when the telescope tube was soaking wet. So I don’t use a dew shield or a dew strap anymore for my C9.25.
Pierre-Jean

What about light leaking on to the corrector plate?  Have you had any issues with that?

Wolfgang Froehlich:
Hi, I have my C9.25 EdgeHD at a remote site in Spain and I am successfully using the Celestron aluminum dew shield plus Celestron Dew Heater ring with it. I mounted a well-sized "Excalibur" flat panel from RBFocus (Spanish company) directly to the dew shield, which avoided using those huge and heavy dovetails. The panel is firmly mounted using a sticky pad plus two large zip ties araound the dew shield. This combination works very well for me, I can use the panel for my flats and I never had any problems with dew so far.

https://en.rbfocus.net/product-page/rb-focus-excalibur-pre-orden

Hi Wolfgang,

And the dew shield is securely fastened to the Edge just using the 2 clip on fasteners?   I am surprised because I found the aluminum dew shield on my Edge 8 always a bit loose..

Ashraf AbuSara:

Jerry Gerber:

Ashraf AbuSara:

Jerry Gerber:
Hello,

I am still thinking about placing an Edge H 9.25 on a 10 Micron GM1000 mount at a Bortle 1-2 site in New Mexico. 

Taking flats with a flip-flat is important to me (and having a cover over the corrector plate).  Wanderer Astro makes such a cover for this scope.   But this means I can't use a dew shield.

Will the Celestron heater ring (plus a dew strap if necessary) be sufficient to deal with dew?  It''s not often that the humidity gets very high, but it occasionally does.

My other concern is imaging without a dew shield to block stray light.   If these two concerns prove to be inconsequential, I'll get the scope, if not, I won't.

Would love to hear from those Edge owners!

Thanks,
Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1T1DzY3I7Y8IJjOJXEqHIg

Hey Jerry. Why can't you use the flat panel with the dew shield? As long as you are using the aluminum dew shield, you should be able to easily strap the flat panel on the end of the dew shield just like you would on the OTA. I have used a Wanderer Astro Flat panel with my Epsilon that way.

As to the dew heater ring, it should be sufficient for Animas, but it can introduce problems with star shapes if it is over 40% pwm. 

​​

I don't think that would work.  I have experience with that dew shield, it's heavy and bulky and does not attach securely to the scope, it uses two clips on both sides and I could never get it to feel 100% secure.  I think also that the 280mm flip-flat would make that much more a problem.  As AnaTa mentioned, the dew shield acts as a wind sail.  

It may be that your Epsilon has a better method of attaching the dew shield to the scope, Celestron's method, I know from experience, is just not going to cut it with a flip-flat that weighs over 2 lbs and has its weight distributed unevenly when the cover is fully open.

I guess my question really is now about light leaks--not using any dew shield means stray light can hit the corrector plate.   It may not be a problem, I am not sure, particularly in a Bortle 1-2 site.

My experience is with my C11 aluminum dew shield. The clips on the side of the OTA are adjustable to make it a more snug fit with a Phillips-head scew driver. Out of the box it was definitely more loose, but once I adjusted the clips it felt rock solid and an extension of the OTA. I did not test it with the Wanderer astro flat panel, but their panels are very light even with the larger sizes.

That's good to know, thanks!

Jerry Gerber:

AnaTa:

Jerry Gerber:
Hello,

I am still thinking about placing an Edge H 9.25 on a 10 Micron GM1000 mount at a Bortle 1-2 site in New Mexico. 

Taking flats with a flip-flat is important to me (and having a cover over the corrector plate).  Wanderer Astro makes such a cover for this scope.   But this means I can't use a dew shield.

Will the Celestron heater ring (plus a dew strap if necessary) be sufficient to deal with dew?  It''s not often that the humidity gets very high, but it occasionally does.

My other concern is imaging without a dew shield to block stray light.   If these two concerns prove to be inconsequential, I'll get the scope, if not, I won't.

Would love to hear from those Edge owners!

Thanks,
Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1T1DzY3I7Y8IJjOJXEqHIg

I had exactly the same setting with Edge 9.25” and 10 microns in facilities not far away from you, in DSNM. Used Astrozap heating dew shield. Asked them to make it 2” shorter. Took Sky flats near Polaris; never had problems.
The major problems are: 1. Wind. Dew shield was acting like sailing sheet. 2. Seeing in places near Animas. I always got chromatic effects on bright stars. No matter how I collimated scope, red and blue split due to atmospheric turbulence. Only images 60 degree above horizon were more or less fine. 3. Incredible dust! Cleaning is needed every 2-3 months. 
Possible solution could be to get 8-12” RC or DK solid tube scope and forget about dew shield and get flip-flat panel, which is produced by several companies.
Clear Skies!
Armen

That's good to know, thanks AnaTa.  I am also considering the Planewave 12.5 as an alternative.   This of course is a lot more money as I'd have to put it on a 10MicronGM2000.  

Jerry

Great choice! You are right. You will need bigger mount. I found alternative. Ordered 10” RC from CFF (Australian-European company). All the best! Clear Skies!

Jerry Gerber:

AnaTa:

Jerry Gerber:

AnaTa:

Jerry Gerber:
Hello,

I am still thinking about placing an Edge H 9.25 on a 10 Micron GM1000 mount at a Bortle 1-2 site in New Mexico. 

Taking flats with a flip-flat is important to me (and having a cover over the corrector plate).  Wanderer Astro makes such a cover for this scope.   But this means I can't use a dew shield.

Will the Celestron heater ring (plus a dew strap if necessary) be sufficient to deal with dew?  It''s not often that the humidity gets very high, but it occasionally does.

My other concern is imaging without a dew shield to block stray light.   If these two concerns prove to be inconsequential, I'll get the scope, if not, I won't.

Would love to hear from those Edge owners!

Thanks,
Jerry
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1T1DzY3I7Y8IJjOJXEqHIg

I had exactly the same setting with Edge 9.25” and 10 microns in facilities not far away from you, in DSNM. Used Astrozap heating dew shield. Asked them to make it 2” shorter. Took Sky flats near Polaris; never had problems.
The major problems are: 1. Wind. Dew shield was acting like sailing sheet. 2. Seeing in places near Animas. I always got chromatic effects on bright stars. No matter how I collimated scope, red and blue split due to atmospheric turbulence. Only images 60 degree above horizon were more or less fine. 3. Incredible dust! Cleaning is needed every 2-3 months. 
Possible solution could be to get 8-12” RC or DK solid tube scope and forget about dew shield and get flip-flat panel, which is produced by several companies.
Clear Skies!
Armen

That's good to know, thanks AnaTa.  I am also considering the Planewave 12.5 as an alternative.   This of course is a lot more money as I'd have to put it on a 10MicronGM2000.  

Jerry

Great choice! You are right. You will need bigger mount. I found alternative. Ordered 10” RC from CFF (Australian-European company). All the best! Clear Skies!

Hi Armen,

Would you be able to put a flip-flat on such a RC scope?  It's definitely less money than the Planewave 12.5..

Hi Jerry, To be honest, I don’t know.  Deep Sky Dad told me to be in touch with size measurements, and they may customize panel for such scope. For example, they did for Epsilon 180. Clear Skies! Armen