[Chaos-l] dew prevention advice

[Michael Hrivnak]

It's time for me to buy some dew prevention for my Starmaster 18.

First off, I am strongly considering building my own heating elements by 
following these instructions:

http://www.dewbuster.com/heaters/heaters.html

Rather than lay out $120-150 on heating elements, I think I can do it all for 
under $20.  Have any of you done this before?  Would anyone be interested in 
making some with me?  The resistors are real stinking cheap ($0.016), and 
shipping is really the greater cost (at about $5 for as many as you can buy).

As for a controller unit, what do you suggest?  Lots of people praise the 
DewBuster for its intelligent thermostat, but I'll mostly not be using that 
feature.  On the Starmaster, I'll just use it to heat the finder, telrad, 
eyepiece, and secondary mirror (which already has an AstroSystems heater that 
includes a thermostat).  However, I may want to use it on my refractor down 
the road, in which case the thermostat ability would come in handy.  Any 
opinions or experience to share?

Thanks,
Michael
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