Shroud for heritage 150p

[shaft]

Could someone please tell me if a shroud is a necessity on the heritage 150p thanks.

[Stu]

6 minutes ago, shaft said:

Could someone please tell me if a shroud is a necessity on the heritage 150p thanks.

I think a lot depends on your observing conditions. If your skies are dark and there is no glare from local lights then from that perspective you don’t really need one. However, I’ve found another benefit and that is stopping your breath from creating air currents in the light path. This can make quite a difference when observing planets or doubles at high power.

They are cheap and simple to make though so probably worth doing anyway.

[etsatlo]

If you have any form of light around you then yes I found you needed one

[Chris]

On 09/09/2021 at 20:58, shaft said:

Could someone please tell me if a shroud is a necessity on the heritage 150p thanks.

It's not a necessity, but an enhancement. A light shroud will increase contrast, prevent air currents from hot breath as mentioned, and it will also help prevent your secondary mirror from dewing up. 

Below is my step by step guide to modding the Heritage 150p. I cover (no pun in intended) how to make an affordable foam light shroud that can remain on the telescope even when you collapse it down for storage. Plus I demonstrate the good old plumbers tape focuser mod which is handy for taking that slack out the helical focuser. 

 

 

 

 

[Tiny Clanger]

A necessity ? No. An improvement ? Probably, for most conditions.

Stopping as much stray light as possible from bouncing around and degrading your view is a good thing, and worth a few £s on some foam or similar. I bought a 100cm square of 3mm thick black closed cell foam for £11 from here https://www.efoam.co.uk/closed-cell-polyethylene-foam.php  (actually I got the extra m for  £3.71 too) and used it to make dew shields for a couple of 'scopes too.  Best glue I found to stick velcro on, or to stick the foam to itself , was hot glue gun stuff. I found self adhesive velcro had a stronger bond between the hook & loop strips than the provided glue gives to the foam it is on after a while.

Heather

[JeremyS]

A shroud also helps prevent your breath cross the light part of the scope which can mess up viewing, especially on cold nights.

I made mine by following the instructions and demo in @Chris Lockie’s most excellent idea above 👍🏻

[wulfrun]

If you observe in very dry and dark conditions, you don't need the shroud. Use only in dry places excludes anyone in the UK and a lot of other parts of the world too. One benefit not yet mentioned is that it makes it harder to drop anything into the open top of the rigid tube piece. OK, if you're exercising normal precautions that shouldn't happen anyway but still, accidents happen. An eyepiece cap would be annoying but it could be worse.

I followed the video above and purchased the same foam as @Tiny Clanger but I stuck it to the existing plastic shield opposite the focuser, rather than velcro-ing it to the top part. The hardest bit is making sure your rectangle is "square", so you end up with a neat cylinder. For the time and cost, it's well worth the trouble in my view.

I did try it without the shield, on a warm, dry evening. I can promise that, in my urban backyard anyway, there's a certain, well-known, law that says whatever object you choose to point it at, it will correspond with some house or streetlight also lining up perfectly on the secondary and spoiling things!

Edited September 11, 2021 by wulfrun

[HoneyBadger-231]

I made one for mine, it seemed to make things easier to focus on, less stray light coming from unwanted directions.  A member here has a video on YouTube making one, I followed his instructions on measurements and had to cut the shroud down to 12 inches in length and 20 mm down in diameter due to me using 6mm eva foam.  Even if you are in a spot like me with next to no light pollution the shroud works good at keeping dirt and debris and moisture out of the insides. 👍💯