Glatter and Blug, Bobs Knobs, Astrozap light shroud

[ZOG]

Kielder gave me the perfect opportunity to test the bits and pieces of new kit that I've collected over the summer so here we go.

The Astrozap shroud is, in my opinion, a bit overpriced for what you get. Basically a length of material, two plastic rings and a couple of draw cords. Having said that, it does what it says on the tin. Easy to fit, and definitely improves contrast by blocking stray light, but the main thing, and the reason I bought it, is it cuts the dew problems on the secondary down to zero when used in conjunction with a home made dew shield.

The Glatter and blug, purchased direct from Howie Glatter at mindspring.com is a brilliant bit of kit. the laser is made from turned aluminium and just oozes quality. It differs from other lasers in that it doesn't have a built in target face on the laser itself. It's designed to be used with the Blug which is a piece of 2" solid plastic rod, drilled through the centre and a small barlow lens inserted into the hole. The bar is cut at a 45 degree angle and this face is painted white.

The laser is supplied with a 1mm aperture stop which gives a very small red dot that you can accurately place in the centre of the "donut" on the primary. Just a note here, the Bobs Knobs on the secondary make this job so much easier that I'm surprised that scopes don't come with them as standard.

Once the secondary is set up, the aperture stop is removed from the laser and the blug is inserted into the drawtube from the inside of the OTA. there is a machined groove in the flat end of the Blug that holds an O ring and a set of shims are supplied to ensure a good fit in the drawtube. In my flextube I turned the 45 degree face to the rear of the tube which means I can collimate the primary without having to run back and forwards to check the pattern. In solid tube newts, the face can be turned to the front.

When the laser is turned on (best done in the dark), the face of the blug lights up red with the shadow od the primary donut showing clearly. A few tweaks of the screws to centre the shadow and the jobs done quickly and easily. I used it to collimate several scopes at Kielder and everyone was impressed at the ease of use. It's not cheap at £137, but it will last a lifetime, and Howie very kindly reduced the price on the customs declaration form to 100$ which helped to avoid import duty and reduced the import VAT to about a tenner.

Finally, I bought a Baader Hyperion 8mm at Kielder to use as a planetary EP. Jupiter was visible but even with the 12mm plossl in the focuser, the image was boiling because of the atmospheric turbulence so I didn't try the hyperion. Instead I used M13 to compare it with my Celestron 12mm plossl, and what a difference.

The Hyperion gives a lovely wider FOV than the plossl with an inky black background and the glob resolved stars down to the core. I reckon this one is a keeper.

Sorry for being so long winded.