Flocking the Skymax 180

[johninderby]

Flocking the Skymax 180

Bought some of FLOs flocking material to flock my Skymax 180. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/black-velour-telescope-flocking-material.html

It is indeed very nice and black but being adhesive backed not that easy to do a nice neat job of flocking a Skymax 180. I have in the past used Protostar Flockboard which is far eaier to use as it has a thin plastic backing so it's easy to cut to size and simply slide nto the tube. Also means it can easily be removed if you wanted to. Only problem it's very expensive to get hold of in the UK. 

So I made my own flockboard by stickng the FLO flocking to a sheet of thin acetate. You can buy the clear acetate sheet from an office supply place or do what I did and use the acetate sheet from a poster frame. Had a couple sitting spare in the garage.

So just measure and cut the acetate sheet to aproximate size and slide into the tube and mark the proper sizes. You may have to slide the sheet into the tube a few times as you trim a bit off at a time. Don't forget to allow for the amount that flange fits into the tube at the front. Once that's dome simply stick the flocking onto the sheet and trim the overhanging bits to size. Then slide the finished "flockboard" into the tube.

You can see the diffrence between the not so black paint and the proper flocking. Just a  bit dark in there now.  ?
      John

 

[chiltonstar]

Can you see any performance improvement?

Chris

[dweller25]

Nice job John, did the same with mine but didn’t notice any contrast improvement on the planets ? looks good though ?

[johninderby]

Only flocked it this morning but expect it will help a bit on lunar. When I flocked a C8 found it did help on the moon, less so on planets. It’s an easy quick job that can’t hurt the performance. 

         John

 

[Knighty2112]

Nice work. Would be interested if you see any difference in contrast. If so I may consider flocking my C8 SCT perhaps.