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Mak 180, Mods complete


philjay

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As it is persistently raining today I thought I would finish off the mods to my Mak 180 and here it is in all its glory:


 


A Handle to make handling safer, I fit these to most of my scopes in some guise or other. Plus a Celestron CGE dovetail bar to fit my obs and mobile mounts


 


dovetail.jpg


 


Motor focuser you've seen before but this shot shows the homebrew dew heater and Ive ditched the RA finder for a straight through because the RA finder is impossible to use on a tall mount with this scope.


topshot.jpg


 


Flocking, a bone of contention here, some claim flocking a compound scope doesn't do anything except helps a little on bright objects, well that's what this scope is mainly used on and views of lunar and Jupiter have shown washed out contrast compared to my refractors. I pointed the scope at Jupiter shortly after I got it and removed the ep and diagonal and looked up the visual back and WOW what a mess, tons of glare. I then swung to lunar and it was dazzling.


So the 1st flocking I did was the inside of the baffle tube up to 20mm from the end. This made a heck of a difference to the glare. Then today I decided to flock the inside of the OTA just to complete it all, I reckon this will have the least affect on contrast improvement but every little helps.


 


Here is the tube before


preflock.jpg


 


You can just see a test bit of flocking in the baffle, its now stuck down properly.


 


and after


 


flockcomplete.jpg


 


 


Oh and the dust on the corrector is now gone also :D


 


Flocking required both ends of the scope off and collimation was checked before and after with a laser and all is well.


 


Now all I need is a clear sky with lunar and Jupiter so  I can put it all to use


 


Edited by philjay
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I'm in favour of flocking IMO it does help. I've looked through plenty of scopes that have been flocked and not flocked and the contrast is better in flocked scopes.


 


Lovely neat DIY as always Phil.


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Lining the internal surface of the scope with material which absorbs any stray light, and limits internal reflection. Theoretically improves contrast.

Jd

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Hi David, its basicaly lining the inside surfaces of the tube with mat black velour to reduce internal reflections that reduce the scopes contrast.

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It's sticking a self adhesive material on the inside of the scope tube, this reduces the amount of light that gets bounced round inside the tube. It improves contrast no end, and makes finding faint stuff easier, as the sky appears darker.


 


Here's my tube before.


 


Before.jpg


 


And after.


 


After.jpg


 


Wilko's sell rolls of it for a fiver a roll, others have got it online from places like Ebay. You need the black velour, not the smooth, shiney or glossy versions.


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If you often observe from a light polluted area (eg near street lights like I do) the flocking, helps to stop any stray light that enters the tube from bouncing around and spoiling the view. It won't reduce it completely but it will definitely help. A flocked dew shield will also help. :)


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Since I flocked my first scope I've never even bothered grabbing first light without doing so to all subsequent scopes, the difference is well worth the effort.


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Might flock mine as the paint they use has a tendency to flake around the corrector plate and invariably ends up on the mirror :( I'll be opening it up again soon to take the dovetail screws out and fit the rings I've made. Did you use anything to plug the holes on your Phil or is the flocking good enough on its own to cover them?

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Might flock mine as the paint they use has a tendency to flake around the corrector plate and invariably ends up on the mirror :( I'll be opening it up again soon to take the dovetail screws out and fit the rings I've made. Did you use anything to plug the holes on your Phil or is the flocking good enough on its own to cover them?

The previous owner fitted the rings and the dt holes were taped. Now the flocking seals them.

Just make sure everything goes back the same way when rebuilding Tom and you shouldnt have any probs. Oh and vacuum out the tube rigorously after flocking.

Oh and one word of warning to others thinking about doing this, Unless you are confident about collimating a Mak (these are not the same as a newt and are pigs to get right) do not even think about stripping it for flocking,

I have years of ATM experience and have collimated many scopes of different types so therefore I have no qualms about stripping scopes. Cos I know I can get it back together. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

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I'm a firm believer in that "if you don't try, you will never learn", but I agree it can be a PITA to get right.

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Very nice as always Phil - despite the warning I'm tempted to take one of my maks apart now, something I can do in the house while it rains!


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  • 5 months later...
Guest Avocette

I am a newbie to this forum and would love to be able to view the images in the first posting. The links seem broken to me, but is this due to some newbie limits?

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Hello, first off welcome to EMS.

With regards to the pictures, I can no longer see them either.

There is no newbie limits on viewing photos in posts, it's more likely the links have been broken or Phil has deleted them from his photo sharing site.

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