28.02.2020 Nobody knows the troubles I've had..!

Friday 28th: 36-41F. A promising start with almost clear skies and bright sunshine has turned almost overcast by 10:15. Though there are some blue patches coming from the west. Then more cloud, then rain and now sunshine again.

Inside of objective dewed over. Three heat bands set going. New arrangement of PST etalon/filter stack with 2" Ø helical focuser. Direct screw into ZWO Camera by ITF/BF holding adapter. No more need for 1.25" focusing EP holder. The helical focuser does not rotate so the camera orientation remains static. Etalon tuning motor refitted and working.

ASCOM[AWR] and CduC are completely up the creek again! CduC showing 10° West instead of east for obs. site on Connect but East on Set-up. LST 12 hours out on AWR IH2 handset. February 24th? That's four days short of a set! I reset Site, date and time [RTC] on the IH2. Set Home [Park] and it is still slewing to east of the meridian from east side of mounting! Crackers!

Captured a few videos of darker marks on solar surface. Then it rained at 12.50. Now 46F in the dome 40F outside in shade. Lots of huge clouds crossing from NW. Three heater bands have reached 80F but obj. is still steamed up at 1300. Central disk of dew reducing very slowly. I need to wrap the whole OTA overnight and apply a foam dewshield.

13.10 Sunshine returns. Capturing disk videos at 320fps and 390fps. 800x600 & 640 x 480. 6 seconds and 5 seconds for 2000 frames Minimum Gain in SharpCap at 2-1.1ms. Camera temperature climbing slowly beyond 30C to reach 31C max. Falls rapidly on cloud cover.

13.17 Full cloud cover. Lunch! Cue continuous sunshine! [Sic]

14:30 Back in the obs. after heavy cloud and a shower. 

I looked up at the observatory as I returned and could clearly see a large, circular patch of dew inside the D-ERF on the 6" telescope. The three heater bands have been on for ages at 80F. The dome is at 49F with 43F outside.

Still capturing videos while I make fine adjustments to etalon and focus.

It is no wonder the views on the monitor look soft with dark shadows! Dew untouched by the heater bands. I had to remove the D-ERF and blow the back dry with the hairdrier. Half an hour later there was another large dew spot back in the center of the filter again! It's not easy to monitor a telescope pointing up in the air.

What good are the heat bands doing? Were they causing the dewing problem by raising the surrounding air temperature but leaving the [enclosed] glass behind? [i.e. Cooler.]

Saturday 29th Feb: 40F, heavy overcast with steady rain.

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