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Flocking - how far do you go with it?

cathalferris

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cathalferris

cathalferris

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How far do people here go when flocking their scopes? How far is too far? I think I may have approached that point..

On my 8" Newt I've flocked the tube walls and the componentry of the spider that is visible from the focal plane. I've also flocked the focuser tube, and the extension tubes. all of this has made a difference in daytime anyway of how dark the view at the focuser is. With a long f.l. eyepiece in the focuser I cannot see any light rings or flares, and off-axis through the focuser the only brightness is that visible in the primary reflections. I've one more place to flock, around the side of the primary but that may affect airflow from the rear of the mirror cell.

The 6" Meade newt, pretty much the same set of things were done and that scope is now also blacker than a black thing off-axis.

However I was a bit surprised when I went at the 80mm Celestron Onyx and the IKI 70mm. I had a lot of flocking to do there to improve matters..

The 80mm, I flocked the sides of the lens cell as that was reflecting a little bit. Also the conical baffle and the tube sidewalls themselves needed to be done.The focuser tube, though milled with blackened threads, was improved greatly with a flocking there.

For the 70mm it was the same story with the cell. the tube wall and the focuser tube needing doing also.

However the big surprise was the effectiveness of flocking things like the diagonals' inlet and outlet tubes as well as the milled steps in the diagonal's tubes.

To see where to flock effectively, I took each scope and pointed the objective end at a bright white wall and then put in various eyepieces and checked the image formed in the eyepiece for any bright rings or lighter patches. Note - this is not putting the eye to the eyepiece but actually looking at the image in the eyepiece field lens itself from maybe a foot away at various angles. It took a while to locate the various light-reflecting surfaces, mostly by rotating and axially moving the various components in the train to see where the reflections were coming from.

So now I have tiny strips of flocking all over my barlows and the diagonals and extension tubes, and also on the threads of the field flattener and the T-mount adapters all while not getting in the way of screw-in filters.

I have internal reflections in the Hyperion zoom as well, but I don't think I can access that easily to resolve that. I am not going to flock the inside of the finderscopes at this point.

All I need now is some clear skies to go and verify that the night-time performance has improved...

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8kids

8kids

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I'm going to flock mine this weekend, I've been putting it off for a while due to the potential rage factor involved, I'm a rather angry diyer :angry5:. Wish me luck......I hope I've got enough spare flocking material. :grin:

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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I'm going to flock mine this weekend, I've been putting it off for a while due to the potential rage factor involved, I'm a rather angry diyer :angry5:. Wish me luck......I hope I've got enough spare flocking material. :grin:

you'll be fine. the bigger the scope, the easier it is. I was certainly cursing when I did my 6" f11 newt.

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cathalferris

cathalferris

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it was a case of "I've started so I may as well do a proper job on it". That and it was very cloudy outside too, and I was having a bit of "anything but study" as I'm writing up a Masters thesis at the moment as well as working.

The 6" was a bear to do as I couldn't get the mirror cell off, and I didn't have appropriately sized bolts to hand if I went to drill them out. Very careful application with fingers millimetres from the shiny side of the mirror! I made the mistake of starting with that one as I thought it would be easier..

At least now I have a bit of a knack on how to size, cut, and apply tiny strips of flocking in strange places next to very delicate things. I'm tempted to flock the PST but I think that the temperatures inside that may be too high.

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brantuk

brantuk

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"Im gonna sound like a complete noob now....what is "flocking"?"

Flocking is the art of darkening the inside of the tube to reduce reflections of stray light when observing in light polluted areas. The effect is to improve contrast and clarity at the eyepiece. People do this typically by sticking matt black felt all around the inside of the scope tube - and often the focuser or any surface that can reflect light.

In this case the OP is doing eyepiece barrels and mirror edges too. As someone said - he's only got his eyelids left to stick black felt onto lol. It does make a noticeable difference though but like all things - it depends how far you want to take it. If you have a good dark site then you may not feel the need to take it so far. I just did my tube and focuser. :)

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nightfisher

nightfisher

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I flocked the dew shield of my Tal 100rs, as i always felt this area reflected a little due to shiny plastic used, i then did as much of the tube interior as i could, then the focus draw tube, this section was very reflective inside, and easy to do, then i did the inside of the diagonal, a good improvement, just be nice to try it out on a dark night with no clouds!

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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Stripped my tube down every thing taken off, started the FLO Flock stuff at the mirror end and along the join in the tube going round the tube not along, peeled a couple of inches back got it aligned with the tube then peeled back a bit stick down, rinse and repeat....not sure i really noticed any difference afterwards, but its done and dusted..

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RoloFanatic

RoloFanatic

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"Im gonna sound like a complete noob now....what is "flocking"?"

Flocking is the art of darkening the inside of the tube to reduce reflections of stray light when observing in light polluted areas. The effect is to improve contrast and clarity at the eyepiece. People do this typically by sticking matt black felt all around the inside of the scope tube - and often the focuser or any surface that can reflect light.

In this case the OP is doing eyepiece barrels and mirror edges too. As someone said - he's only got his eyelids left to stick black felt onto lol. It does make a noticeable difference though but like all things - it depends how far you want to take it. If you have a good dark site then you may not feel the need to take it so far. I just did my tube and focuser. :)

Thanks, i get it now :rolleyes:

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ChrisThePuma

ChrisThePuma

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RoloFanatic - you should "follow" the below thread as well - this is dedicated to 150PL owners which i see you are in your signature.

Its quiet on there at the moment, but any mods, tips and questions pertaining to the 150PL will be on there :smiley:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/132160-skywatcher-150pl-owners-tips-and-mods/

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