With autumn this year, we've been heckled with constant dewing problems.  The seeing has been generally good, but the summer observing gear is packed and the big 'ole C14 has been mounted in place of the Dahl Kirkham telescope.  The DK is absolutely prone to dewing problems here.  I know that the reviews say that it is dew resistant.  Perhaps somewhere else, that may be the case.  Besides, for those dim fuzzies, I need aperture!  Since I no longer have any of the scopes I made, the observatory and the 14" SCT will grudgingly fulfill my needs this season.

The new setup holds the 14" SCT on the bottom of the mount.  Atop it is a 5" refractor.  I enjoy using the refractor so much that I can't totally give it up.  Mounting and balincing the combination is a bit tricky. Every thing has to stay where you put it with the

gears disengaged. If you put too much pressure on the brass gears, they can be damaged.

Here you can see the refractor mounted on top of the 14" SCT.  Paul is checking out the alignment of the tube's extensionnnn to make sure that everything is straight. 

Even though the 5" refractor isn't all that heavy, it requires an extra 40 pounds of counterweight since it is mounted on top of the larger telescope.  Paul is leaning on the shelving unit I built around the pier a couple of years ago. This has proved to be an invaluable asset.  I can easily place all the supporting electro gizmos, power supplies, and computer on the shelves. Another thing that is important in this observatory is that the shelves can be removed for cleaning. We have serious mice problems in the observatory and the only way to deal with them is to clean up frequently so that they don't have a chance to nest anywhere.

The white box with blue tape on the big scope is the Kendrick Digifire dew controller. I've had to tape it up because the red LED lights are so bright.  I have posted my thoughts about this unit under the reviews section of the website.