149 replies to this topic

[clamchip]

I was planning to make lead caps for this lens but I sold it recently. I always felt a little nervous having it in my shop and being bombarded with radiation.

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[clamchip]

The tea color is thorium and if I remember correctly it is decomposing and is why it has turned to a tea color. Supposedly UV will remove this discoloration.
When I was much younger these Kodak recon camera lenses were very inexpensive and we would build telescopes using the heavy lens. I placed a ad on CL for this one and it sold instantly, the photographers consider them super special.

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[Chuck Hards]

I found a source.
Cover your scopes responsibly.

Wow, that took me back. My dad had all of his golf club heads covered with those when I was a kid. Thanks for the memory!

[PhilCo126]

Cover made from a waiter's plate... famous Belgian Beer collector's item

http://www.flickr.co...vzw/9646730984/

[strdst]

A few days ago I received from CharlieB a replacement objective for the shattered 40mm that came with my new Royal Astro Optical telescope. He packed it super well using a cut down mailing tube with plastic plugs for the ends ...

 

With a wrap of surgical tape, a snug fit for a Tasco 7te-5.

 

 

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[strdst]

And then yesterday while at work cleaning up after a weekend wedding in a park I find something interesting in the trash. A wooden (veneer) box with a heavy metal lid sort of like a cocoa can... Hmmm, I challenge my co-worker at break to guess what it was/is. I hear candle holder, but i'm betting different. I pry it open and I win. Some leftover ashes and an ID. I'm guessing Uncle Barry always wanted to give his favorite niece away at her wedding but didn't quite make it, but his ashes did!

 

Maybe Uncle Barry was the rice substitute. Maybe that was too dark for some of you. If so, I'm sorry.

 

I'm all about stories to explain what I find day in and day out while cleaning up city parks.

 

But this is about lens caps and so it is...

 

a perfect fit.

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Edited by strdst, 26 August 2014 - 10:13 PM.

[clamchip]

Now if you just happen to own a brown tube Odyssey with its hand tooled leatherette hide on the tube why then a cowboy hat is a mighty fine cap to keep out them critters and dirt and such.

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[Gil V]

A shoelace and a .79 piece of white poster board for my 8" SCT. Been using the same piece of poster board for years. Had to replace shoelace recently.

[paulwmi]

A Pringles container with the bottom removed (can opener works) with a rectangle custom cut to fit over the top of a telrad makes a great dew and light shield. I spray painted mine flat black, and hold it on with a rubber band. Been using one for 20 years.  When the mood strikes me I buy a new tube of pringles, eat the guts, and use the peel to make a new one. I save lids to keep it round and store my red gel flashlight inside.

[orion61]

I have found that Furnace Duct insulation The Aluminum pleated stuff that comes in rolls makes for a great Dew shield for a Schmidt, when done slide it on the tube for scratch protection or fold it flat.

Sorry no pics, as I ended up finding a commercial made one. But I used the home made one for years.

[Terra Nova]

This one doesn't quite qualify but I made this 6" long slip fit dew shield Saturday out of a scrap piece of 6063-T52 4" o.d. 1/8" wall aluminum tubing for my 78 x 900 Vixen Frankentron. It took about 30 minutes on the lathe and it slips nicely over the aluminum objective cell I machined for the project. A Folger's coffee can lid fits perfectly as a dust cap. The dew shield is lined with black felt for both the fit and also the flocking.

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Edited by terraclarke, 02 September 2014 - 01:52 PM.

[Terra Nova]

2

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Edited by terraclarke, 02 September 2014 - 01:48 PM.

[AstroPhys]

Not a dew cap or shield but I just discovered that a 35mm film canister top fits perfectly on the Unitron 1.25" Unihex tube. Probably fits some other 1.25"  stuff too.

But, of course, you guys already knew this.  It is Fuji film cans I used.

Edited by AstroPhys, 11 September 2014 - 07:43 AM.

[roscoe]

This dew shield on my ATM/Carton 60 was a fire extinguisher in its last life.....I had my machinist friend turn the cell down a bit so it fit, and made a lens cap (not shown here) from the bottom half inch of a soup can, with a felt lining, that slips right on.

 

[clamchip]

This is a perfect fit for a Swift 831.

I didn't buy this cap it came with the recently acquired scope, I'm actually a Tillamook man. I like any ice cream to tell the truth. I used to only buy Tillamook when it was on sale but now I just buy it because I love it so much and when you really love something price doesn't matter. I feel the same way about Hot Dogs, it's Nathan's or nothing. But I like any Hot Dog truthfully.

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[figurate]

Can I get a definitive ruling on this point? I thought that a dew shield and a dew cap were two words for the same thing.

 

This is a recent effort of mine which is really more in the ATM vein, although the optics are a classic Jaegers 4" set. I had looked around for sheet material from which to construct an oversized dewcap/shield without any luck, when I remembered that I had a piece of durable plastic sitting in the back yard originally meant to help in raking leaves into bags. It was the perfect material for the job- I epoxied it into a cylinder, sprung into shape by four wooden rings (darning hoops cut down to size and glued). It is light but solid and allows for six baffles, four right at the front to mitigate local light sources.   

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[figurate]

And here is the (mostly) finished scope. Total weight with eyepiece: 11 pounds.  All my telescopes feature handles; this one utilizes adjustable trim weights for EP compensation.

 

Fred

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[Rich (RLTYS)]

Nice looking scope.

 

Rich (RLTYS)

[figurate]

Thanks, Rich. The oversized and well-baffled dew cap/light shield has been successful enough that I'll probably rethink some of my other ones. But the best thing is, at 11 lbs (and using a spare focuser that I had) the total cost came in at about $10.50 per pound. Not bad for some really sharp optics with only modest color error.

 

Fred 

[Chuck Hards]

Can I get a definitive ruling on this point? I thought that a dew shield and a dew cap were two words for the same thing.

 

 

 

Very nice, Fred!

 

In my book, dew cap and dew shield are the same thing.  If it closes-off the aperture completely, it is a dust cover or dust cap.  If it's a sub-aperture cap with a hole, it's an aperture stop.  My 2 cents.

[figurate]

Thanks Chuck. That's pretty much my take on it also.

 

Fred

[AstroPhys]

Looking around for something to make a solar filter frame out of for a Unisys 4" refractor,  I found that a large Gator-Aid powder mix container with the rim cut off fits exactly. These are rolled paperboard with a thin aluminum liner. I'm going to cut one off and open up the bottom for the solar filter assembly. I believe the plastic cap with the center cut out will hold the mylar in place when snapped over the bottom.

I  also found that a cd 50 or 100 pack container will fit very well for a lens cap. It's a bit longer than necessary since it narrows too much at the top, but fits. 

[BSJ]

The plastic lid from an 8oz Planters Lightly Salted mixed nut container fits my Orange tube C90 perfectly.

[clamchip]

Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese lid for the Edmund Scientific 3 inch refractor:

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[clamchip]

During the holidays and all the food we should keep our eyes open

for new caps and shields.

 

Robert

Edited by actionhac, 23 November 2016 - 10:04 PM.