From: "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: November 30, 2007 12:03:10 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: First light ... Mars

Hi Jim;

It really wasn't too bad at all. If it's above -20°C, I usually wear

one light thin isotoner glove and then have the other hand bare. If

that hand gets cold, it goes in a pocket to warm up.

When I image over x-mas, I expect it will be below -20°C and likely in

the -30°C to -40°C range as the forecast after Dec 15th is for colder

and snowier than normal for the next 3 months. At least I don't need

to have a "cooled camera" for DSO's, however the hand controller LED

is non functional and you need to have a heating pad on the laptop to

prevent the screen from freezing. I suspect a digital camera like a

Canon or Nikon etc would be useless at -30°C.

However I discovered I need to re-tune my HEQ5's RA gear tension again

because the temp has dropped 40°C (72 °F) since I re-tuned it over the

summer. It starts to bind on the RA axis once it's running at high

speed for slewing because the metal has contracted. The Dec axis is fine.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Jim Chung <jim_chung@...> wrote:

Hi Milton,

I find -10 C almost the limit to imaging and I can't imagine -17 or

-20C.  You 

might want to try finding a pair of cold weather golfing gloves,

they are thin 

enough to still manipulate and provide some degree of protection.

Jim