I am glad you did a review on this. I got one and it messed up my stars. I thought it was a problem with the scope . So I imaged stars without it on and it was fine , as it heated up my stars started to get spikes on them , when I turned it off took about 5 mins or so to get stars back to normal..... Hope you have better luck with it . I should have invested in a heated dew shield ...
I think that I will try one of these for my RASA. I use a heated dew shield but in summer it just makes it so difficult to get the ASI2600 down to any meaningful temperature, -10C maybe on max cooling. As this will direct the heat more closely to the front element I think that it will not heat the air inside the dew shield up as much. Another great video. I am not sure that I would take my RASA apart without seeing you do it.
I too was looking at the heated dew shield option as I just don’t feel the heater strap was doing enough and you couldn’t really place it near the front element due to dovetail plates etc. so glad they have came out with this product, let’s hope it all works well. So far so good. As for pulling the RASA apart, I have actually taken the whole thing apart before 🤣
Cool! Didn’t know these existed. Sometimes Celestron has a good idea. Hopefully the unit is compatible with existing controllers and not proprietary like Celestron does to us sometimes. With firmware that needs updating 🤣
@@StevenMorrisPhotography oooh. That’s a curveball. My pegasus ultimate power box has an auto dew feature that adjusts pwm voltage based on need. So I guess I would have to make it max output or nothing. There’s always a gotcha with Celestron…
Looks like a great idea. I am always wary of anything having to do with the corrector plate. It makes me really nervous. However since you only remove the ring, it shouldnt involve any risk. Unfortunately, it is $100 for the 11" SCT. Every little accessory is more than I expect. I am starting to have a cable problem as I ease into astrophotography and this certainly takes care of the cable to the controller but I also have dew tape for the guide scope which adds another wire. I would be concerned whether the ring cables will work with my current controller. The plugs are RCA and only require one cable per heat strip. Why are there two on this one?
I hope so too. The ECCO needs to activate the strip at just over 11 volts I can manually do it at the dew heater port but when controlled through the Ecco that could be different.
Hi Steve very interesting product & I'm glad it works with third party controllers as I use a Pegasus powerbox for my dew control system, do the RASA's work without using the dewshields now? I'm only asking as I've got the RASA 11 set up to use in the observatory but still need to iron out some niggles first but as I had to put an extension on the pier there's not a lot of room for the dewshield to be fitted, there's always something in this hobby to test us lol. Mind you thinking about it without a dewshield flats are going to be interesting to take I guess.
I haven’t tested it without dew shields, maybe you could try a half sized dew shield that will fit in your observatory and provide a little protection? I totally understand your struggles, astro does test us that’s for sure!
I don’t know how you can get diffraction spikes from the dew heater ring as it doesn’t block the optical path at all. The only thing that could cause this would be the cables if they aren’t locked away and are free to move about over the corrector plate which wouldn’t be a nice thing for the glass.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography I didn’t understand it either, but there are a bunch of forum posts about this issue, along with sample images. It’s unclear to me how many people are experiencing this.
I see cloudynights forum has something about this which is really interesting, I will have to keep an eye out for it when mine get turned on during winter. We shall see and if there is an issue I'll run one with it on and the other rasa with it off to see what I can replicate too. Time will tell, or maybe in Australia being upside down we don't have these issues haha
Hey Steven. Thanks for the vid. I have been looking for one of these for the last 2-3 weeks and cant find it anywhere in Aus. Where did you get yours from?
With having the cables offset from the base do you know if the alloy celestron dew shield will still fit over the top of the dew ring cable clip. Thanks Iain
That’s a good question Iain, unfortunately I don’t own the alloy dew shield. I’ve been looking at the pictures online and I believe it has a socket section you plug them into inside the dew shield but I’m really not sure until I get my hands on one. I’m really excited about the product, I just can’t answer all your questions and my own questions I have about the new shield.
Hi Steven, thanks for the video. I'm about to fit mine to my 11 RASA. Have you sed the rings much since you installed them? Could you provide a user report on how well they function, if possible? Cheers
Unfortunately I can’t report on the out one the field use of the dew heater rings as I haven’t had to use them yet as well as the poor weather we have had lately. I hope to get the twins up and going again in the next few weeks. Sorry I can’t help you out much more than that at the moment.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Oh, no, that's great thanks. I hope you get some clear skies soon!! You help loads of people out with your informative & insightful videos! I'm a Brit living in the USA so for me it's high dew season at the moment. Thus far I've been using Dew Not heat bands placed just behind the corrector plate of the OTA controlled by a Thousand Oaks control panel. I have to say both have worked really well. I'm a bit of sucker for new kit from Celestron when they bring it out and I was all over the dew rings & controllers when they first appeared. Now I'm asking "Did I really need that?!" Celestron relies on impulse purchasers like me! hahhaha Cheers Steven
Hadn’t heard of these. I presume they would work with other brand SCTs or is it only Celestron branded ones? Will be interested to see how you find the performance
I think the only way they could work with other branded SCT’s is if the holes are in the same location and they are sufficient enough to keep the corrector plate in place.
Hi Steve! Quick question: I also image with a PrimaLuce Eagle and the accessory Ecco environmental controller. Does the Eagle (and Ecco) recognize the thermistor of the dew ring and work accordingly? Thanks!
I haven’t done any testing regarding the Celestron thermostat, I’ve only had it directly connected to the Eagle computer. You do need to make sure your placing 12 volts through to activate the dew ring. I’ve found if you just power it on and don’t set the voltage it doesn’t work. So I’m not sure if the Ecco will pump up the voltage to then activate the dew ring so to speak. It’s all been manual connection and activation for now.
I am glad you did a review on this. I got one and it messed up my stars. I thought it was a problem with the scope . So I imaged stars without it on and it was fine , as it heated up my stars started to get spikes on them , when I turned it off took about 5 mins or so to get stars back to normal..... Hope you have better luck with it . I should have invested in a heated dew shield ...
Thanks Steven.
I was hesitant with previous experiences with corrector plate. I might try
Yeah it was an easy install to do as long as your careful.
I think that I will try one of these for my RASA. I use a heated dew shield but in summer it just makes it so difficult to get the ASI2600 down to any meaningful temperature, -10C maybe on max cooling. As this will direct the heat more closely to the front element I think that it will not heat the air inside the dew shield up as much. Another great video. I am not sure that I would take my RASA apart without seeing you do it.
I too was looking at the heated dew shield option as I just don’t feel the heater strap was doing enough and you couldn’t really place it near the front element due to dovetail plates etc. so glad they have came out with this product, let’s hope it all works well. So far so good.
As for pulling the RASA apart, I have actually taken the whole thing apart before 🤣
Cool! Didn’t know these existed. Sometimes Celestron has a good idea. Hopefully the unit is compatible with existing controllers and not proprietary like Celestron does to us sometimes. With firmware that needs updating 🤣
I agree, one heads up. When I turn on my dew heater port I have to adjust it to 12v output if not the dew heater won’t fire up with less Volts.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography oooh. That’s a curveball. My pegasus ultimate power box has an auto dew feature that adjusts pwm voltage based on need. So I guess I would have to make it max output or nothing. There’s always a gotcha with Celestron…
We will soon see, I need to trigger the ECCO with the dew heater ring and see what happens.
Looks like a great idea. I am always wary of anything having to do with the corrector plate. It makes me really nervous. However since you only remove the ring, it shouldnt involve any risk. Unfortunately, it is $100 for the 11" SCT. Every little accessory is more than I expect. I am starting to have a cable problem as I ease into astrophotography and this certainly takes care of the cable to the controller but I also have dew tape for the guide scope which adds another wire. I would be concerned whether the ring cables will work with my current controller. The plugs are RCA and only require one cable per heat strip. Why are there two on this one?
Do let us know how it goes when connected to the ECCO 2. Fingers crossed it's fully compatible! 🤞
I hope so too. The ECCO needs to activate the strip at just over 11 volts I can manually do it at the dew heater port but when controlled through the Ecco that could be different.
Thanks for the video - very useful. However how does a normal dew shield (for light pollution) now fit on the OTA?
It can still fit, it’s just much tighter with the cables coming out the bottom or however you decide to mount the dew ring.
Hi Steve very interesting product & I'm glad it works with third party controllers as I use a Pegasus powerbox for my dew control system, do the RASA's work without using the dewshields now? I'm only asking as I've got the RASA 11 set up to use in the observatory but still need to iron out some niggles first but as I had to put an extension on the pier there's not a lot of room for the dewshield to be fitted, there's always something in this hobby to test us lol. Mind you thinking about it without a dewshield flats are going to be interesting to take I guess.
I haven’t tested it without dew shields, maybe you could try a half sized dew shield that will fit in your observatory and provide a little protection?
I totally understand your struggles, astro does test us that’s for sure!
Love it in concept. I’ve heard some pretty odd diffraction patterns show up after installing. Stars are no longer circular. Have you noticed this?
I don’t know how you can get diffraction spikes from the dew heater ring as it doesn’t block the optical path at all. The only thing that could cause this would be the cables if they aren’t locked away and are free to move about over the corrector plate which wouldn’t be a nice thing for the glass.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography I didn’t understand it either, but there are a bunch of forum posts about this issue, along with sample images. It’s unclear to me how many people are experiencing this.
I see cloudynights forum has something about this which is really interesting, I will have to keep an eye out for it when mine get turned on during winter. We shall see and if there is an issue I'll run one with it on and the other rasa with it off to see what I can replicate too. Time will tell, or maybe in Australia being upside down we don't have these issues haha
Hey Steven. Thanks for the vid. I have been looking for one of these for the last 2-3 weeks and cant find it anywhere in Aus. Where did you get yours from?
I believe they are meant to be landing in Aus soon however I couldn’t wait and got mine from B&H Photo in the US.
With having the cables offset from the base do you know if the alloy celestron dew shield will still fit over the top of the dew ring cable clip. Thanks Iain
That’s a good question Iain, unfortunately I don’t own the alloy dew shield. I’ve been looking at the pictures online and I believe it has a socket section you plug them into inside the dew shield but I’m really not sure until I get my hands on one. I’m really excited about the product, I just can’t answer all your questions and my own questions I have about the new shield.
Hi Steven, thanks for the video. I'm about to fit mine to my 11 RASA. Have you sed the rings much since you installed them? Could you provide a user report on how well they function, if possible? Cheers
Unfortunately I can’t report on the out one the field use of the dew heater rings as I haven’t had to use them yet as well as the poor weather we have had lately. I hope to get the twins up and going again in the next few weeks.
Sorry I can’t help you out much more than that at the moment.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Oh, no, that's great thanks. I hope you get some clear skies soon!! You help loads of people out with your informative & insightful videos! I'm a Brit living in the USA so for me it's high dew season at the moment. Thus far I've been using Dew Not heat bands placed just behind the corrector plate of the OTA controlled by a Thousand Oaks control panel. I have to say both have worked really well. I'm a bit of sucker for new kit from Celestron when they bring it out and I was all over the dew rings & controllers when they first appeared. Now I'm asking "Did I really need that?!" Celestron relies on impulse purchasers like me! hahhaha Cheers Steven
Hadn’t heard of these. I presume they would work with other brand SCTs or is it only Celestron branded ones? Will be interested to see how you find the performance
I think the only way they could work with other branded SCT’s is if the holes are in the same location and they are sufficient enough to keep the corrector plate in place.
Hi Steve! Quick question: I also image with a PrimaLuce Eagle and the accessory Ecco environmental controller. Does the Eagle (and Ecco) recognize the thermistor of the dew ring and work accordingly? Thanks!
I haven’t done any testing regarding the Celestron thermostat, I’ve only had it directly connected to the Eagle computer. You do need to make sure your placing 12 volts through to activate the dew ring. I’ve found if you just power it on and don’t set the voltage it doesn’t work.
So I’m not sure if the Ecco will pump up the voltage to then activate the dew ring so to speak.
It’s all been manual connection and activation for now.
@@StevenMorrisPhotography Thanks Steve for getting back. If you give it a test please do comment on it. Have a good one!!
Can you use a duw sheald for stray light?
A dew shield can also help with reducing stray light from hitting your optics
Are you supposed to be able to get the cover on afterwards?
I would assume so, I’ve actually never checked it as my cameras are permanently mounted on the front of my RASAS
Did you use the Dew Heater last night Steve?
Nah not last night was close to using it
Is 4 - 8" Rasa's better than 2 - 10" Rasa's..?
Tough question. Would depend on what you wish to image and how you want to image. So many variables there.
This ring for the 14 is a complete rip off. £90 more than for the 11 for no good reason other than greed.