DIY Light Shroud for open truss Dob

[gfletcher]

Hi Guys

Has anyone made their own light shroud for an open tube Dob?

welcome any who has ideas on materials and methods to adopt to make your own

thanks

Graham

[Tweedledee]

It is not difficult to make your own effective light shroud out of any opaque material and sew on some Velcro and wrap it round the OTA. But a DIY job might not look nice, until it gets very dark. ? 

 

How nice it looks may not be a factor for some, since you won't notice it in the dark, but I decided that I didn't have any suitable skills to enable me to make a nice looking job of one.

 

If you want it to look neat then get in touch with a local seamstress. They will come and measure your scope like measuring someone for a dress, and then do a very neat professional looking job. A local lady quoted me about £40 for a 20" scope after I discussed it with her and showed her photos of similar truss telescopes. She would sew up a neat tube from 4 way stretchy opaque black material and fit concealed elastic top and bottom.

 

I think you can buy one ready made for your scope for about £45.

 

If you really want to save money, I'm sure there will be some Youtube videos around. Here's one but it isn't very informative...

https://youtu.be/-liAEyzvNOU 

[8472]

I've bought a roll of cheap camping mat last year (still in it's packaging, as it's one of those "I'll get round to that sometime later" projects), to replace my old shroud. 

 

You can cut it to suit but obviously don't buy a bright coloured one.