cure for ice in center of windshield!!

[GeorgeSSSS]

Friends:

While unsuccessfully trying to find 12 volt heated electrical tape to remove the ice buildup at the center bottom of the H2 windshield, I discovered that amature astronomers use 12 volt flexible heated electrical strips to heat their telescopes to remove dew buildup at elevation at night. The strips are not sticky and they are insulated on one side so the heat goes out the other. The strips come in various sizes and shapes and must be used with temperature controllers that plug into a 12 volt car cigarette lighter power source. I won't be able to experiment with this until late October when I go hunting in the Utah mountains. If someone else wants to give it a shot before that, here are some links that I found.

http://www.digitalastronomy.com/html...llers___ta.asp

http://www.kendrick-ai.com/astro/dew...dardController

http://www.camcor.com/cgi-bin/bcatal...&id=1048105533

The main questions, it seems to me, are whether these things get hot enough to help and whether the draw on the car battery is significant (I doubt the latter). I couldn't find any astronomers to answer my questions because, according to my neighbor who is really into astro telescopes, dew removal systems are needed more on the east coast than here in California.

If no one wants to try this themselves, I'm going to work on it starting in about September.

Unaslob: Manhattan Beach is exactly 4 square miles. The world truly is a small place.

Best regards,

George