I hope I Caused No Damage - Forums

Topic starter

Apr 1, 2025

Hello NM Imagers!

We're fortunate to have dark skies. Many of us live in cities where light pollution and sky obstruction are problems that are not getting any better.

My telescope is at HCRO, about 7500 feet elevation in the NM mountains.

I've been turning my mount off when not imaging but was advised to leave it on 24/7. The reason is that if it's wintertime and the roof opens, it can get very cold in the observatory, well below freezing. Condensation can form on the gear and that moisture can damage electronics. So from now on I am going to leave everything powered up.

I hope I didn't do any damage to my 10MicronGM1000 mount. I just finished 3 nights of imaging and unguided tracking is superb, so it appears that I didn't, unless something shows up later. Maybe I dodged a bullet..

Jerry

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Timothy Martin

IOTD Staff

Apr 4, 2025

10Micron mounts are pretty tough. Three of years ago, I had a tripod leg collapse (because I had stupidly not tightened it enough when I was leveling it) with the mount and C11 on board. The GM1000 slammed hard into the cobblestone deck. The C11 caught the edge and it put a 2" deep dent in the side of the tube. Miraculously, no glass broke and Celestron replaced the tube and retuned the scope for $175 plus shipping. The GM1000 was fine. It's now been out at Deep Sky West for a year with my FSQ on it and has been the most reliable piece of gear I have.

As for when to power your equipment, I agree that it should just stay on all the time. I know people in Chile and other places in solar/battery-powered observatories can't really do that, but I would regard it as a best practice if you're hooked into the grid. It not only helps ward off humidity, it also mitigates wide temperature swings in the electronics. While overheating is the cancer of electronics, continual large temperature changes are the cardiovascular disease of those machines.

My practice (your mileage may vary) is, however, to power cycle everything every 48 hours. So every other afternoon, I close all the software, shut down the mount and the NUC, and turn off all the switches on the Digital Loggers Web Pro. I leave it off for about 30 seconds, power it all back up, restart the software, and go. On the other days, I just close NINA and restart it without power cycling anything. Over the course of 18 months, I've determined that–at least for me–this keeps the gremlins away.

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Jerry Gerber

Topic starter

Apr 4, 2025

Timothy Martin:
10Micron mounts are pretty tough. Three of years ago, I had a tripod leg collapse (because I had stupidly not tightened it enough when I was leveling it) with the mount and C11 on board. The GM1000 slammed hard into the cobblestone deck. The C11 caught the edge and it put a 2" deep dent in the side of the tube. Miraculously, no glass broke and Celestron replaced the tube and retuned the scope for $175 plus shipping. The GM1000 was fine. It's now been out at Deep Sky West for a year with my FSQ on it and has been the most reliable piece of gear I have.

As for when to power your equipment, I agree that it should just stay on all the time. I know people in Chile and other places in solar/battery-powered observatories can't really do that, but I would regard it as a best practice if you're hooked into the grid. It not only helps ward off humidity, it also mitigates wide temperature swings in the electronics. While overheating is the cancer of electronics, continual large temperature changes are the cardiovascular disease of those machines.

My practice (your mileage may vary) is, however, to power cycle everything every 48 hours. So every other afternoon, I close all the software, shut down the mount and the NUC, and turn off all the switches on the Digital Loggers Web Pro. I leave it off for about 30 seconds, power it all back up, restart the software, and go. On the other days, I just close NINA and restart it without power cycling anything. Over the course of 18 months, I've determined that--at least for me--this keeps the gremlins away.

Hi Timothy,

That seems like a good plan. I've been shutting off everything during the day when the observatory temperature is around 60-70F and then turning everything back on when it gets dark, whether or not I am imaging and whether or not the roof is open or closed.

But your method of powering down every 48 hours for just a brief time makes sense, as it clears out any glitches that can be resolved through powering off but keeps the temperature fairly constant. I'm going to try that as well.

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