Stupid question time. What is flocking ?

[Catanonia]

What is flocking in terms of astronomy ?

I hear that scopes have been flocked, or partially flocked, but what does it mean.

Are my scopes in my sig flocked as a matter of production ?

Ta.

Cat

[astromerlin]

Hi, The term is used when you get a large collection of telescopes together ie: star party. lol

Seriously, some people flock the insides of the OTA I believe to prevent stray reflections, basicly any light hitting the sides gets scattered. It is supposed to be better than just matt black paint.

I guess someone more knowledgeable in flocking will comment but I couldn't resist.

Cheers

John

[moocher]

Basically flocking your tube (my LX200 has been) improves contrast, It makes a big difference. If your into visual its one of the best and cheapest upgrades you can do. You need to use the proper stuff though as its specially designed to reduce light scatter. HTH

Alan:)

[Catanonia]

Thanks guys. I thought it was on the outside of the tube....

Are my Skywatcher Pro's flocked as standard ?

[The Warthog]

No, they are painted flat black. YOu can get flodking paper or use black adhesive felt to darken the portion of the tube opposite the focuser. Some people flock the entire tube, but I don`t think it`s worth it in terms of return.

[nitram100]

This is probably your best bet of getting some flocking paper in the UK.

Telescope Parts UK

[Capricorn]

Just in case it has not been realised, the posts say what it does and where to get paper but may not be exactly clear on what it is.

Flocking is coating the inside of the tube to prevent (reduce) stray light reflections. It can be done by simply painting the inside with matt black paint, coating the inner surface with matt black paper or a material such as black felt. I think that if youare really keen you can get it treated as the old flock wallpaper done by electrostatics and small hairs (not sure what they used for wallpaper.) But probably expensive.

The "problem" if that is what it is, is that at the low angles of reflection all the above can still reflect a fair amount of the light. Try looking at a piece of matt black card at an angle and you can easily see reflections coming off.

[callump]

You can also get it from Edmund Optics:

Light Absorbing Black-Out Material - Edmund Optics

The main point with flocking, is that it has a hair like texture that reduces reflections, more so than just flat black paint.

You can mix sawdust or other grainy compounds with your flat black paint to get a a similar effect, but not quite as good as the 'real thing'.

/callump

[tinvek]

you should get a group of female dancers wearing ostridge feathers to do it for you

[Astro_Baby]

Protostar flocking paper really dampened down any reflections. I did a post on here some time ago showing the difference.

Heres the pic - the one on the left has been over exposed to allow the flocking to show a bit. The one on the right is what it more closely looks like. In reality without a direct light source down the tube its like a black hole down there. No light refelection at all.

I also at the same time as flocking the tube painted the edge of the secondary and primary mirror with blackboard paint and repainted all interior metal work, nuts, bolts, screws and the spider vane in blackboard paint as well - its REALLY dark in there now.

Does it make a big difference ? Hard to say but the scope looks cooler and it gave me something to do I'd say the moon and bright objects show a slight contrast gain but as the weather has been so atrocious between the time it was used without flocking and the time it was used after flocking was so long it was hard to say if there was a noticeable difference. I'd have to compare it with an unflocked identical scope side by side.

Heres the pics