Solar observing hoods. Recommendations or show us yours

[spaceboy]

I bet Moonshane would like this for keeping all his solar sketching gear in

[spaceboy]

LOL just my luck http://www.darkskiesapparel.com/index.html

[spaceboy]

I still can't help but feel these prices are taking advantage, http://r-sky.org/en/products/observing-hood but they look perfect and there is a solar one available

[Stu]

I know you've all been desperate to see this, so I will make the ultimate sacrifice and offer myself up for public ridicule

Think I might try one of the Telegizmos at some point though when funds allow.

[Stub Mandrel]

I read the first post and I was going to say I use my green workshop overalls draped over the end of the scope... but I see there are many far more amusing solutions!

[spaceboy]

On ‎07‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 18:13, Grant said:

I've got one of these en-route so I will report back and hopefully get some better photos of it

Up until now I do the same as Stu - hoody / fleece put on upside down / head first - trouble is I get stupidly hot and it's a bit of a faff trying to get the laptop underneath as well.

Any review on this yet Grant ?

[Grant]

1 minute ago, spaceboy said:

Any review on this yet Grant ?

I've not seen the sun since it arrived ? As soon as I do I'll be out there with it and will report back - tomorrow likes like half a chance.

[spaceboy]

How about some pics to keep us entertained while we await the review 

 

[JOC]

Have just stumbled over this amusing thread - it strikes me that what you might need is one of those rigid foam filled aluminium gizmos that you open up and prop up inside a car windscreen on a hot day (incidentally they work for this purpose brilliantly - you might argue it looks bit odd, but hey what price a cooler car on a hot day).  One or two of those and a sewing machine and I bet I could draft up something for well under a tenner.

Edit - I've just ordered a couple to see what I can construct.

[Pete Presland]

5 hours ago, JOC said:

Have just stumbled over this amusing thread - it strikes me that what you might need is one of those rigid foam filled aluminium gizmos that you open up and prop up inside a car windscreen on a hot day (incidentally they work for this purpose brilliantly - you might argue it looks bit odd, but hey what price a cooler car on a hot day).  One or two of those and a sewing machine and I bet I could draft up something for well under a tenner.

Edit - I've just ordered a couple to see what I can construct.

I bought two of these from a charity street stall in Weymouth last August while on holiday for £1 each, astronomy never far from my thoughts. Not made anything with them other than a improvised Laptop canopy over my tent.

[spaceboy]

Well my birthday present came early

The cost is eye watering to say the least but I was stunned to find the thing really works. Before it had arrived, I had been observing for around 15 minutes. I was basically cooking under the midday sun and with the lack of solar activity about to throw in the towel when the door went and a friendly and I have to say hot DHL lady requested I check the parcel as it was falling apart. Hats off to DHL for not just getting a signature and doing a runner, but you may want to check your boxes are better stuck together in future FLO . Thankfully the contents although practically falling out looked fine and I was happy to know my hints at my 2017 B'day present hadn't fell on deaf ears

Now to the solar blanket. First impressions were this is huge! It is kinda bulky, heavy and awkward feeling due to it's size. It has to be expected I guess as you want something big enough to shade you and your equipment from the sun as well as offering enough material to enclose your peripheral vision from excess stray light. There is a foil type layer similar to picnic blankets with a lighter black cotton backing on the underside. The foil and black cotton backing seems to keep together (as a single sheet) well despite only being fixed together around the edges with a nicely sewn nylon , canvas type material boarder.

While it is a hand full to get over your scope to start with their is a Velcro strip to the front that seals to enclosed the scope and indeed your mount in the process. This I like and was one of the reasons I decided the blanket would be worth the outlay in the long run. Most mounts have lubricated parts inside. May be bearings or a slither of grease to reduce friction on internal parts which may become compromised due to regular shifts in temperatures. Mounts also have plastic parts which do over time suffer from exposure to UV light and wither become brittle or unsightly due to bleaching.

Yesterday was pretty hot in Brum and while we had a nice breeze I was sheltered from this in the obsy so had the full force of the sun beating down on me. In use the blanket does a truly amazing job of keeping you cool. It is most apparent when you feel your leg frying in the sun but your comfortable observing the sun with out beads of sweat running down your brow. It's as if your in a different climate under the blanket. I get that the foil reflects the sun light but it does it so efficiently that even the black lining felt cool despite being in the direct midday sun for 30 minutes. The cotton backing does allow through some light but it also because of this allows you to breath under this rather large blanket. You do know it is over your head but even though this is a big old sheet draped over everything it is no more distracting than having a regular towel or jumper over your head. While the black backing allows a little light through it does stop enough stray light that you can settle and relax at the eyepiece with no need to cup your observing eye. The blanket simply draped over you will block enough light for high magnification Ha observing due to it's size but I found using a plastic clamp made things even better by closing up the free hanging sides of the blanket around the underside of the scope. This makes you almost cocooned within a cool and moderately dark environment so you can get on with your observing despite the possibility everyone outside the blanket becoming lobsters. 

All in all the blanket did a great first light job of keeping me and my kit protected from the harsh midday sun. It improved the visibility at the eyepiece reducing stray light and allowing me to relax both arms instead of constantly having to cup my one eye.

I will though have to add to this review once I have tried it out on a manual AZ mount. Possible cons I foresee are the blanket is quite the handful and when you have a diddy little solar finder on the side of your scope this is going to be a challenge to expose under all this blanket to find the solar disc before then having to cocoon yourself one again under the blanket with out loosing the sun again during the whole process. Then its the weight and unavoidable friction while moving under the blanket going to mean you constantly pulling yourself off target. I'm sure this can all be overcome by buttoning up clutches and then releasing them again once under the blanket. OK this may seem a lot of faffing but TBH I am already sold on the faffing as the blanket makes observing so much more bearable. OK it's not the first thing I would grab if the sun is quite or there was a lot of patchy cloud but if the sun was high full of activity across the disc I'd be more happy knowing I had it to hand than not.

Regards the cost...... Hmmm I don't know? It's a tuff one as I am a tight B and I really can't bear the thought of shelling out for something I may be able to knock up on the old dears Singer and a bit of spare time. Could I make one cheaper ? Probably? Could I make something that ooze's such quality and no doubt durability because of it ? Not likely. I do enjoy solar observing and do so more than night sky these days due to my love of sleep. Is this going to offer me a significant improvement to my solar observing? Yes I do believe it will. I think it will take a little getting used to due to the size but I'm still getting over how well it works at keeping me cool. I had started this thread in the hope that I would find a solar observing hood that would help me to block stray light and save my arm from aching. Instead I have found something that does that and makes the experience so much more enjoyable when the sun beats down on me.

[FLO]

21 minutes ago, spaceboy said:

... you may want to check your boxes are better stuck together in future FLO . Thankfully the contents although practically falling out looked fine and I was happy to know my hints at my 2017 B'day present hadn't fell on deaf ears

Sorry about that   

We only recently became a TeleGizmo stockist. I am guessing my colleague's in dispatch thought regular packaging would suffice for something as soft and pliable as a solar observing hood. I will let them know it needs something stronger.  

It is good to hear you are pleased with it's performance 

HTH, 

Steve 

[spaceboy]

6 hours ago, FLO said:

Sorry about that   

We only recently became a TeleGizmo stockist. I am guessing my colleague's in dispatch thought regular packaging would suffice for something as soft and pliable as a solar observing hood. I will let them know it needs something stronger.  

It is good to hear you are pleased with it's performance 

HTH, 

Steve 

I totally agree Steve that something soft and pliable should have and did make the journey in the supplied packaging. The box reminded me of the ones Amazon use for their books and I have never had any problems with paperbacks arriving damaged so I don't think you need anything stronger just something better sealed. On this occasion had the box thing come undone any further the contents may well have gone walkies which would have seen someone at a £55 loss. I should in hindsight maybe took a picture so you could see yourselves. The DHL driver was concerned enough to wait for me to check the contents which is a first.

It is a really good product though and was worth you taking on stock. Just a shame at the cost of these things as I'm sure more people could benefit from them but few would commit over a days wage for. I don't suppose brexit helped with the price though.

[Moonshane]

Just made these and they work very well.  I find hoods a bit claustrophobic. Might refine them eventually.

[spaceboy]

That's a fab idea Shane.

If you'd have seen me today, claustrophobic would have been an understatement

I have to say though the more I use this "hood / blanket / tent ??" the more I'm liking it.

On ‎11‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 12:15, spaceboy said:

I will though have to add to this review once I have tried it out on a manual AZ mount. Possible cons I foresee are the blanket is quite the handful and when you have a diddy little solar finder on the side of your scope this is going to be a challenge to expose under all this blanket to find the solar disc before then having to cocoon yourself one again under the blanket with out loosing the sun again during the whole process. Then its the weight and unavoidable friction while moving under the blanket going to mean you constantly pulling yourself off target. I'm sure this can all be overcome by buttoning up clutches and then releasing them again once under the blanket. OK this may seem a lot of faffing but TBH I am already sold on the faffing as the blanket makes observing so much more bearable. OK it's not the first thing I would grab if the sun is quite or there was a lot of patchy cloud but if the sun was high full of activity across the disc I'd be more happy knowing I had it to hand than not.

OK so today was the first chance to try the blanket with my rather compact LS60 and AZ4 combo. First off and as I suspected, there is no chance your going to use your TV sol searcher. There is just soooooo much blanket to contend with that getting it out of the way while aligning to the sun is near impossible. I do have a little experience finding the sun with out a finder so I was able to drop on fairly quickly but for Ha in particular it isn't the easiest of things to do. For WL its far easier to find the sun without a finder so I don't see it being so much of an issue if your a wedge or Baader film user.

The performance in use was pretty much as I'd already covered in my previous short review. What I did become aware of though is that the blanket has a similar effect to insulation in that when I was in the midday sun it kept me cool but observing this morning while it was still relatively cool out, I was warmer when under the blanket. It was always my intension to also use the blanket for night time observing to help block stray light and to find today it also has an insulating effect got me thinking that this could be an additional advantage in postponing dew by keeping the scope slightly above ambient temperature for longer. Not to mention keeping me warm also

Again as predicted when used with the AZ mount the clutches needed to be nipped up quite tight. The LS60 to be fair is already focuser heavy and being such a small scope you don't get a great deal of room for balancing. With a huge blanket draped over you really have no option than stiffening up he movement to a point reasonable force is necessary to track the sun. It's still not jerky by any means.

As you can see a great deal of the mount and tripod are also protected from direct exposure to UV hopefully helping to add to the longevity of the mount. Also protected is 60% of the amateur astronomer sat using the kit. The blanket easily sat down my back to my belt line completely sheltering me from the sun. Again using a plastic clip I was able to envelope myself in the black lining blocking out all light apart from the small amount that comes through the blanket itself. My guess is this small amount of light is allowing the blanket to be breathable and not feel like a giant bin bag around you.

Before I offer my final verdict I will point out I have 3 solar scopes and try to get out as often as possible. Previous attempts to shade myself with garden umbrellas and solar hats etc have never proved to be most effective. £55 is an awful lot of money but over all I am pleased with the TeleGizmos Solar Observing Hood. I do feel it is a little on the large size and could work just as well being only 2/3 the size. A quality piece no doubt but half a Ton for what is two layers of material sewn together . Fair enough there is probably some research price included in that total as I doubt they got the combination of materials to work so well straight off the bat and there was some money spent trying different things. Then there is the whole niche of solar observing so mass produced prices are never going to happen. It is still a pinch on the pocket and feel maybe £35 a more realistic price for what it is. It is a handful and can be a bit fiddly to get used to at first because of the way the material hangs, but my solar observing will benefit from having one and it sure does make the high midday sun more bearable and enjoyable to observe. I have yet to try it out under a night sky but as long as it doesn't obstruct the finder I think it will come in equally as useful at blocking glare from LED street lights and hopefully help restrain dew from forming abruptly.

Everyone has there own requirements though so as I have always said if it works for one person it may not necessary work for another.

[Pete Presland]

Thank you for the very comprehensive  reviews! Sounds like a useful addition to the solar set up, as for the cost? Seems a little high I guess, but that's purely  an individual  choice.  

What size is it?

[spaceboy]

49" x 58" open out and 49" long by 29" folded and Velcro fastened over scope. Huge in other words  

[Buzzard75]

On ‎4‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 14:05, spaceboy said:

I still can't help but feel these prices are taking advantage, http://r-sky.org/en/products/observing-hood but they look perfect and there is a solar one available

So I was thinking about this. It's pretty easy for just about anyone to make with simple sewing skills. But my question is, why do you need two products? I understand that white on the outside is good for solar observing. But, does it have to be black on the outside for night time observing or would the one that's white on the outside serve the same purpose? And to that point, couldn't you just make it so it's reversible? Would white on the inside be bad at night?

[spaceboy]

A valid point. The "solar" one would suit both day and night equally as well. I wouldn't even see any need for it to be reversible. I guess the only down side to having a white hood for night time observing is that you could maybe stand out ??? In a back yard it isn't so much an issue but in a field at a dark site you may feel a little exposed and worry about someone untoward noticing you. I guess this might be the thinking behind it being black but personally I think there is less of a chance of you accidently leaving a white one behind if you did take it off ??

[Buzzard75]

My mother is a quilting queen and loves sewing projects. I'm going to see if she can make me a hood like those with some of that reflective material on the outside. Fairfield World makes a material called Solarize that is supposedly less stiff and crinkly than the standard metalic coated material. We'll see if it works. Hopefully it doesn't just make it an oven and bake my noggin.

[JOC]

9 hours ago, Buzzard75 said:

My mother is a quilting queen and loves sewing projects. I'm going to see if she can make me a hood like those with some of that reflective material on the outside. Fairfield World makes a material called Solarize that is supposedly less stiff and crinkly than the standard metalic coated material. We'll see if it works. Hopefully it doesn't just make it an oven and bake my noggin.

When you are costing it take a look at these fold open reflective covers for putting up in a car windshield to keep them cool - like this. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIVERSAL-CAR-WINDSCREEN-SUNSHADE-VISOR-FOLDABLE-REFLECTIVE-HEAT-COVER-ANY-CAR-/191262603920?hash=item2c8823ba90:g:UmgAAOSwxH1T0vfh

They are even shaped and I bet if you stitched two or more  together and left the hole in the middle that it would fit over an EP

[spaceboy]

So I figured it best to give a final update on my solar hood searching.

As regards the Telegizmo solar observing hood I personally feel there is no beating it for what it offers to your solar observing. Sadly due to unforeseen and quite frankly unfortunate circumstances it became apparent that it was not going to be suitable due to the size and weight of the hood. Having experienced the hood and the comfort it offered under the midday sun the idea of going back to hats, sheets or fussing getting garden umbrellas in just the right spot wasn't a welcome thought.

So it was back to the drawing board in an attempt to find something similar to the TG hood but much smaller and lighter. After a couple hours of searching the WWW. I came across an idea which I have hopefully improved upon. I will not find out for sure if it's going to be an ideal replacement until the weather breaks and the sun shows it's face one again...who knows when that will be

I purchased one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371932944224?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

and ended up with this

First impressions are that I'm on to a winner. It is dead light, the material seems durable, size is perfect and due to the shape it fits over the head and drapes over the eyepiece perfectly. At only £6.99 delivered I feel it is worth the gamble and it if stops the sun scorching my head even better. The only doubt I have are that while the reflective side sure is reflective and should do a great job of diverting the suns heat etc, the black nylon material on the underside may encourage sweating while I'm under the hood? Oddly despite what the is originally designed for there does seem a degree of breathability and the hole in the centre should offer at least some sort of venting. Again first light will reveal if it's going to remain a DIY solar hood or be reverted back to a flash umbrella for my photography uses.

I will do a small review once I get chance to get out an try it.

[SonnyE]

On 4/6/2017 at 14:54, Helen said:

?

And how about this for the original question?  Not as 'stylish' as Stu though ?

http://www.homebuiltastronomy.com/PSTEyepieceShield.htm

Helen

There is another catch as well, Helen... The Catch-All would now leak the contents if used for its original intent.

(Just between you and me, I think Stu's Mum probably dressed him funny as a child. Where else would he learn such behaviors?)

My wife gave me some really odd looks when I ran to the wardrobe to try it.

Second thoughts:

If anybody has noted adding a fan, I missed it. But, adding a smallish fan could help not feeling trapped under your Solar Hoods.

Think of it as a breeze up between the knees, as it were.

Link to FLO's hoods....

[SonnyE]

On 4/15/2017 at 10:11, Stu said:

I know you've all been desperate to see this, so I will make the ultimate sacrifice and offer myself up for public ridicule

Think I might try one of the Telegizmos at some point though when funds allow.

 Stu,

You put a whole new perspective on the term SWEAT Shirt.....

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Suits you, sir!