Well, I knew this was eventually going to bite me in the rear, and last night it did. First clear moonless night in months (and unseasonably warm) and it was ruined by the window on my ASI1600mmc fogging up. Within a half-hour of connecting and I noticed the stars getting blurry in the center of the frames. With each frame it got worse, so I had to stop my sequence and look for the cause. It wasn't clouds, it wasn't the objective, it was the outer protect window of the camera that was fogged up. I tried lowering cooling, which did nothing other than increase noise on the subs. This is not on the inside of the camera, this is on the outer surface of the window, so desiccants are useless here. My 1600 is directly threaded into the EFW8. The only way to remove the dew was to unthread the camera from the optical train and wipe it off. An exercise in futility because the moment I connected the camera up, the problem returned. I had no choice but to pack up for the night... a perfectly clear night wasted on a camera that is proving to be more problems than its worth.
Not even a year later and there have been 2 revisions to the ASI1600MMC to add features and address the dewing problem, but none of them cover owners of the V.1. I was hoping there would be a "bolt-on" solution offered to allow for heating of the window, but instead we early adopters were told that if we want a better anti-dew solution, we will have to sell our cameras (at a loss, no doubt), and buy a new one. Totally acceptable and a slap in the face.
I can't own a camera that fogs up as soon as the weather starts to get nice. My friends that I was imaging with (who had QHY cameras) were able to image all night without having any fogging problems, so I don't want to hear about aggravating conditions. It was warm and slightly damp, as it can be in spring, summer, and fall. If a camera fails to operate outside of winter, what's the point of keeping it? I'm about tired of waiting for an acceptable fix that apparently will never come. I should've just waited for the 163M. If I'm expected to take a hit and sell my camera at a great loss, you can be assured I won't be buying another 1600. Nothing turns me off more from buying a product from a company that leaves me behind.
