'Play misty for me'

200 Ohm resistors wired in parallel

A band of 12 resistors wired in parallel forming the heater for the Altair Astro Lightwave telescope's objective lens - battery connectors also wired in parallel for two 9 volt batteries.

Completed 'dew zapper' added to the EFS 18-55mm. zoom lens for a trial imaging run

 

Completed heater for the Altair Astro Lightwave telescope.

" Jolene McSquint-Fleming, the Jodrell Plank Observatory's 'Instrumentation Engineer' has been 'working her electrically insulating cotton socks off' constructing light weight battery operated 'dew zapping' lens heaters for a number of bits of glass in constant use at the Observatory.  With relative humidity readings in excess of 80% being regularly recorded here on the UK's East Coast, the existing thermal insulation around camera and telescope lenses has been unable to keep dew at bay for longer than an hour before condensation has prevented clear sharp images from being obtained. Jolene has now completed two heaters; one to fit a standard  Canon EFS 18-55mm. zoom camera lens and one to be used with the Observatory's Altair Astro 66mm. Lightwave telescope. She is currently working on another three. Many thanks to Alan Sheehan B.E and IceInSpace for the invaluable 'Dew Zapper' design Excel Spreadsheet"  -  Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

A stack of trial images taken with a Canon 600d DSLR and an EFS 18-55mm. zoom camera lens using the in-house fabricated 'dew zapper'

" I was pleased that the 'dew zapper' worked effectively for over 2 hours" - Jolene McSquint-Fleming