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Re: (meteorobs) Re: Brrrrrrrrr
One last addition to Trond's, George's, and Kevin's excellent advice on cold
weather observing. I got in EXACTLY Teff=1.0 last Friday night, before being
forced to go in and WARM UP: again, I just wasn't prepared for the cold snap
that hit, and watched the time religiously until I could go in without guilt!
So the next day, on the advice of some folks from the sci.astro.amateur
newsgroup, I went to a local camping store and picked up "Toe Warmers". These
are one-shot chemical bags, like the Hand Warmers others have mentioned on the
list, except that they're specifically designed to put in the toes of your boots
(a pretty anaerobic environment, it turns out) and last at LEAST five hours. I
tried them the following night, along with a space-age ski mask, and although
the temps that night were a balmy 35oF (10o warmer than the previous night), my
impression was that they helped IMMENSELY to keep me from shivering! Sadly they
didn't help much with the cirrus-laden sky that night, though... :(
At $1.25 each, they're certainly worth a shot! (I bought ten pairs.) Just be
careful to keep your boots on - the chemicals go into "afterburn" in open air!
As for gloves, I'm using a pair of thinsulates that give me all the dexterity I
need (if I don't drop my pencil! :<). But I'll certainly try Kevin's hand-muff
idea, as I could tell they weren't doing the job the night it was in the 20s...
Clear skies and toasty toes,
Lew
PS: George, I'd thought of sticking hand-warmers next to my big eyepieces to
keep them from dewing - this is a big pain in colder temps! Do they really work
to keep the dew off? I'd wondered whether maybe they needed body warmth as a
catalyst, and so would be useless for eyepieces or lenses. But if not, they'd be
a whole lot cheaper than one of those Kendrick Dew System dewhickies...
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