Strange, cheap, yet essential... What's yours?!

[Christopher Davenport]

I use a old set of my wife's black pantihose, to stretch onto my neoprene dew shield around my scope to hold it in place.

It works a treat and gives my night out a sense of sexy adventure 

[ollypenrice]

I use a old set of my wife's black pantihose, to stretch onto my neoprene dew shield around my scope to hold it in place.

It works a treat and gives my night out a sense of sexy adventure 

Just keep an eye on images of your fellow astronomers' rigs. You woudn't want said items appearing everywhere!!! 

Olly

[frugal]

An A3 sheet of black craft foam to make a "cone of darkness" around the camera lens. It extends 10" beyond the lens and does a great job of stopping the light from the street light from ruining images.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

[cepheus42]

Er.........a bottle of Jamiesons whiskey, doesn't help the observing but sure makes it more fun! Have I missed the point ?

[russ]

Velcro - keeps everything in a handy place on the side of the mount and tripod.  But the Asda camping mat for £1.50 runs it a close second.

[Pete Presland]

It was a clothes peg on my focuser on the c9.25

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[Crebles]

"Cone of Darkness" - Brilliant.

Star Trek III: Cone of Darkness

Peers confirm Hawking's maths works for a for cone of darkness.

George Bush extends Axis of Evil to...  

[Qualia]

My PTP - Pirate's Thong Patch

Worth keeping an eye out for one, if you can.....

Ummmm, I'll get my coat

But seriously, best bit of kit I've ever made myself and as you can see, I'm a whizz when it comes to sowing...

[crimpshrine]

At least your easy to pick out at a star party I guess!

[todd8137]

Plant pot flocked on the inside as a dew shield for camera lens. Cut the bottom of fits a treat

Pat

[Sandancer10]

 My solution to the Polar Scope neck wrenching, backbreaking and lying on the ground every time I setup up the scope for under £5.00.

I bought a 90 deg viewfinder from Ebay, some O rings and a 32mm to 40mm plumbing fitting.

I put 2 O-rings around the end of the Polar Scope.  2 around the 40mm end of the pipe fitting and attached the viewfinder and then glued them into place. Now I just have to push the 32mm end onto the Polar Scope and bingo it stays there - so now I can bend over and align Polaris. Total cost 1.89 for the view finder, 1.59 for the O-rings and 1.49 for the fitting - c/o B&Q.  

[Russe]

A garden stool pillow for polar alignment in comfort - essential & cheap...

[Russko13]

Paul that is genius, love it. For me it's also got to be red quality street wrappers, every torch I own is rocking a red light filter! Also for bino users a cheap purchase of some spare lens caps and some baader astro film make for some decent budget solar filters

[MikeMc]

At least 30 x 2p coins. I use them to count my lights, darks and bias etc. If I'm doing more than 30 sec exposures then I loose count so I put a coin down every time I take an exposure, and the copper 2p stands out nice against an old white board I balance my kit on

I can then concentrate on the view and not worry if that was my 15th or 18th light frame!