At 06:31 AM 12/01/1999 -0800, you wrote:
>I live in a subtropical h*llhole also. Houston <g>.
>
>Fungus is a problem, but it is easily fought by making sure the
>optics are dried each day. This means leaving them in the
>morning sun to mostly dry out then storing them unsealed in
>an air conditioned room.

Morning sun -- in Houston. I was there for 15 years, and many days the
humidity just stays high. You must be quite a ways in the outskirts, as
well (both for light pollution, and light-fingered opportunists) to be able
to leave it out.

I was offered an interesting suggestion, that works well for Newtonians,
but is a bit more problematic for Schmidts and Maks - when putting away the
wet OTA, cover loosely with a large brown paper bag (like a grocery or leaf
bag). The bag soaks up the water, and provides a drying environment. The
only problem I found was that typical brown bags tend to be somewhat dusty,
and one trades dry optics for dusty optics. I'm working on making a new
dust cover that is somewhat air-tight, and breaths through dust-free drying
agents (like good bagged silica gel, or perhaps even molecular sieve. When
I have some evidence, I'll post to the list. I live in the DC area (north,
in suburban MD), and humidity is, if not similar, often as much a nuisance,
because the sharper temperature drops at night, together with the fairly
high humidity, almost guarantee heavy dew on any good night. Best is to
use good dew caps/heaters, and never let the optical surfaces get a chance
to get damp.

Your advice about unsealed, and good airconditioning is good. Too bad my
wife won't let me store the OTA in the dinning room like I wanted to do.

Clear skies, David
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