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Thoughts on a Heritage 130p Light Shroud


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So, in February I joined the Heritage 130p mafia, but before I did I'd asked "Do I need a light shroud"? The consensus was "No, but they're easy to make and might be useful." Well, last month I did make one (well, two actually), and I noticed something interesting.

I live under pretty bad light pollution, and so I had found when looking at Saturn that Rhea was only just visible. However, now when I use the shroud it is clearer, and I can make out Tethys and Dione too, if they're away from the planet. So, in short, it does make a difference, at least in town.

To make my shroud I choose to use thin neoprene - from Homecrafts.co.uk. (I'd like to say this was my idea, but actually, it was following Naemeth's advice in another thread). I went with neoprene as camping mat felt too thick, I wasn't sure about card and dew, and I guessed neoprene would be easy to work with.The sheet was 1200x1250 mm, and the size needed for a shroud was about, in the end, 350x600mm, so a roll should make two if you're careful - which is what I did.

The neoprene is a little reflective - it's supposed to be 'black', but definitely looks 'grey' - but it isn't shiny. I may be tempted to try flocking the shroud if I'm brave enough to flock the scope sometime.

For closures, I decided to just use velcro. First attempt, I decided to use Aquasure neoprene glue to attach the velcro to the neoprene. This was messy, untidy, and overkill. Not happy with the result, I tried making a second using sticky back velcro - this is perfectly adequate. I just used some out of Hobbycraft.

The shape I ended up with was:

post-28380-0-09821300-1371979917_thumb.j

You'll notice 2 holes cut in it - this is for the bolts that lock the supports. I had to cut these as I was a little short on neoprene for this second shroud, and this meant I had enough length - just. It also turns out that they support the shroud nicely, so I didn't need to put velcro on the scope to hold it in place.

The other notches are for the focusser, finder, and dovetail rail.

So, all in all, pretty simple, and if I'd not used the neoprene glue it'd have cost about £18 for two.

(I wasn't sure if this thread should go in the DIY Section - after all, it's hardly a telescope build - or the Beginners Equipment section, where this question seems to get asked a bit)

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Although next time try posting in the same colour?My brain is abit fried from reading black on grey :D

Weird - I didn't set a colour. I did copy and paste from Pages on my Macbook - I wondered if that brought it across? I have the forum set up to show black on white, rather than the normal theme, so it looks fine to me (Though I can't read your last sentence!)

Any chance that someone with Edit rights could correct that?

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Its still readable, I was just being silly :icon_jokercolor:

Only admins can edit someone elses post (I think, if at all) and I wouldn't worry about it. Obviously the point comes across and people can see it. Its just me and my inherent laziness.

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Edited.

Thank you! I'll make a note to not copy and paste again - I'm pretty sure that was the problem.

Pictures of it fitted:

post-28380-0-66770200-1372019792_thumb.j

You can see the bolts poking through the holes that I mentioned.

post-28380-0-95001600-1372019829_thumb.j

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Looking very neat Andy - much much neater than mine.

If you want to get the light shroud to move up and down with the scope, just stick the neoprene to the inside of the scope (from just below where the dust cap sits), and selotape it on, then make sure each side is stuck together and the hole is there for the secondary. You may find that sometimes the shroud can get in the way like this, so often just before observing I put a bit of selotape on to tug the shroud so it doesn't obscure the primary, but this may not be entirely necessary.

HTH :)

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Is the neoprene fabric backed like a mouse mat to give it strength ?

Nope. I didn't think of trying to get that, to be honest. It was hard enough finding neoprene that wasn't 5mm thick and for wetsuits, or in a large enough sheet. (I was stuck until I found the link Naemeth had posted before). Though that does set me thinking... I bet flocking would stick to that sort of backing REALLY well.

Not a complicated project, but I was interested at the improvement I saw. It wasn't, you know, huge - but I was chuffed to get 4 moons of Saturn where previously it'd been 2

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  • 1 year later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Hi Digger1895 i was reading this old thread too because i need to make a light shroud for my heritage 130p, those damn street lights! i came across this on youtube:-

Now thats damn sexy, it collapses into the tube so no need to keep removing it after use and also offers a little dust/particle protection to the secondary as well.

I will do 1 in card but will search for a more suitable material like neoprene or plastic, i think he is using neoprene in the vid but its hard to tell as the maker has not responded to any queries.

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