Lacerta deltaT - Dual Temperature Controller with two independent outputs

Lacerta deltaT Temperature Controller

Dual temperature controller for dew caps, heating tapes and telescope optics to reduce seeing and dew.

On clear nights, telescopes cool out due to thermal radiation. As a result, the relative humidity rises and dew settles onto the cool optics and can thus stop the observation night very quickly.

A dew cap or heating element increases the temperature around the optics and prevent dew. However, these dew caps often increase the temperature more than needed and this can produce tube seeing or air swirling. Because of the fixed thermal output of dew caps or heating elements, they produce different results for cold and warm nights.

With the Lacerta Dual Temperature Controller automatic, these problems are a thing of the past. It uses temperature sensors to measure the outside temperature and the dew cap temperature. Based on the temperature difference, the required power is adjusted to hold the temperature e of the dew cap a few degrees above the ambient temperature. With a temperature pre-set knob the temperature difference between the ambient and the dew cap is defined. With this pre-set, the optimum of dew protection and air turbulence can be found. Another big advantage of this temperature controller is the low energy consumption, because only a small amount of energy is required to reach and maintain the required temperature.

With the Lacerta Dual Temperature Controller all common heating cuffs and dew caps can be used (12 V RCA plugs).

The third image shows an example:

The user has set a temperature difference of 10 °C and the controller achieves this temperature quickly and reliably and can hold it the entire observation night.

The practical use, shown as video

The manufacturer shows the usage in a video (this link will lead you to YouTube).