10472 replies to this topic

[Kasmos]

Yesterday I touched up the scratches on the 839 mount

Matching the grayish brown was harder than I thought it would be.

First I mixed some black, white, and brown, but it needed some yellow to neutralze it.

I didn't mix up a big batch but instead as it was needed so some spots matched better than others. It was tedious since I kept going outside to check it in better lighting and then adjusted it and check again. Sometimes loading up the brush and doing it outside. 

 

 

Airbrushing the hub was another pita.

I kept adjusting it as I sprayed each coat but mixing colors in the airbrush cup is really just a guess.

First it was too brown, then too dark, and the last coat didn't have enough brown. 

Not too thrilled with the texture or sheen as well 

 

IMO, It looks too neutral and maybe a little too light in this lighting.

I'm tempted to spray it again, but my wife said don't mess with it,

or at least give it sometime.

 

[jragsdale]

I'm tempted to spray it again, but my wife said don't mess with it, or at least give it sometime.

Perfect is the enemy of good. I think you're there!

[ccwemyss]

If it's too close but not perfect, it looks like a mistake. If it is distinctly different, it looks intentional. A bit like wrong notes in Jazz.

 

Chip W. 

[deSitter]

Yesterday I touched up the scratches on the 839 mount

839-Mnt-TU.jpg

Matching the grayish brown was harder than I thought it would be.

First I mixed some black, white, and brown, but it needed some yellow to neutralze it.

I didn't mix up a big batch but instead as it was needed so some spots matched better than others. It was tedious since I kept going outside to check it in better lighting and then adjusted it and check again. Sometimes loading up the brush and doing it outside. 

 

 

Airbrushing the hub was another pita.

I kept adjusting it as I sprayed each coat but mixing colors in the airbrush cup is really just a guess.

First it was too brown, then too dark, and the last coat didn't have enough brown. 

839-Hub-Bpaint.jpg

Not too thrilled with the texture or sheen as well 

 

839-Hub-Mnt.jpg

IMO, It looks too neutral and maybe a little too light in this lighting.

I'm tempted to spray it again, but my wife said don't mess with it,

or at least give it sometime.

 

I don't know how you would recreate that texture. 

 

-drl

[Kasmos]

I don't know how you would recreate that texture. 

 

-drl

The original parts are just wrinkle paint. Since you can't find it in brown, I first sprayed it with black, but I was too cautious and didn't lay it on too heavy thinking I didn't want it to have bigger wrinkles than the rest of the parts. I thought it would be okay when I airbrushed over it, but it mostly filled them in.

 

The color is probably more important to me and I'm still not sure I can live with it as is. Others have used a textured brown that came pretty close. I think it was a stone finish, I've also seen a gray-brown satin that might be close.

[deSitter]

The original parts are just wrinkle paint. Since you can't find it in brown, I first sprayed it with black, but I was too cautious and didn't lay it on too heavy thinking I didn't want it to have bigger wrinkles than the rest of the parts. I thought it would be okay when I airbrushed over it, but it mostly filled them in.

 

The color is probably more important to me and I'm still not sure I can live with it as is. Others have used a textured brown that came pretty close. I think it was a stone finish, I've also seen a gray-brown satin that might be close.

 

Well there is no doubt to me the color is a mismatch. I can't quite quantify it but I'd say the hub needs to be more saturated (less grey).

 

-drl

[deSitter]

The original parts are just wrinkle paint. Since you can't find it in brown, I first sprayed it with black, but I was too cautious and didn't lay it on too heavy thinking I didn't want it to have bigger wrinkles than the rest of the parts. I thought it would be okay when I airbrushed over it, but it mostly filled them in.

 

The color is probably more important to me and I'm still not sure I can live with it as is. Others have used a textured brown that came pretty close. I think it was a stone finish, I've also seen a gray-brown satin that might be close.

 

Running the saturation way up and blurring highlights the color difference. 

 

-drl

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[CHASLX200]

Running the saturation way up and blurring highlights the color difference. 

 

-drl

Blur city kitty.

[Kasmos]

Well there is no doubt to me the color is a mismatch. I can't quite quantify it but I'd say the hub needs to be more saturated (less grey).

 

-drl

Yeah. It needs to be a little more brown with maybe a touch of black. To nuetralize the color of the prior coat I added too much yellow and a little too much white. 

 

I won't mind if it's not a perfect match and think I could live with it if it was a little darker and/or too brown as oppossed to being too yellow-gray. Especially since other parts in the kit are different shades of brown.

[Kasmos]

I repainted the 839 Hub.

I mixed the paint in a small container and adjusted it a few times before attempting a first try.

Then sprayed it two more times with different mixtures and decided to call it quits.

 

I thought it was  a little too warm (as in red-ish), until it started to dry.

As it did I began to get concerned the yellow was coming thru and nuetralizing it again.

It's better this time but tomorrow when it's dry I'll check it with the mount part and see how it look.

[deSitter]

I repainted the 839 Hub.

I mixed the paint in a small container and adjusted it a few times before attempting a first try.

Then sprayed it two more times with different mixtures and decided to call it quits.

 

839-Hub-Re-p.jpg

I thought it was  a little too warm (as in red-ish), until it started to dry.

As it did I began to get concerned the yellow was coming thru and nuetralizing it again.

It's better this time but tomorrow when it's dry I'll check it with the mount part and see how it look.

 

That is absolutely a better match. 

 

-drl

[CHASLX200]

Tried to shine up the legs on my LX200 from the salt water from the flood from the cane.  Did a number on it.

[Kasmos]

Well... it's better but it could have been a bit darker.

Plus the traces of the wrinkle finish are essentially gone.

The browns on the OTA and all of the acessories slightly vary,

so perhaps when it's all assembled it will all blend in?

In anycase, for now I'm done fussing with it.

 

I still have to restore the tripod (from a Monolux), and need to paint it's brackets,

so maybe I'll re-address this when I do.

Edited by Kasmos, 15 June 2025 - 03:20 PM.

[tim53]

That does look pretty good.  I wonder though.  Have you thought about painting the part with a wrinkle grey or black, then after that's cured, painting over the texture with your brown?  Or:  I bet a good paint store could make up some wrinkle brown for you.

 

-Tim.

[Kasmos]

That does look pretty good.  I wonder though.  Have you thought about painting the part with a wrinkle grey or black, then after that's cured, painting over the texture with your brown?  Or:  I bet a good paint store could make up some wrinkle brown for you.

 

-Tim.

I did that, but the can I used wrinkles really heavy so I was cautious about laying it on too thick. And also because the wrinkles on this mount are really fine.  The link below shows the first coat in wrinkle black.

 

https://www.cloudyni...day/?p=14164918

 

Then I put 3 coats of brown that weren't right. I was just guessing the ratios of colors by mixing it in the airbrush cup and seeing how it looked as I sprayed, which pretty much filled in most of the wrinkles.

 

Before this attempt, I didn't want to start over and since I wasn't too sure it would come out good anyway. I also lightly sanded it because it had a few annoying bumps that sort of stuck out from the rest of it.

 

If I had mixed a good shade of brown the first time, it probably would have worked out fairly well.

 

The problem with having some made, it might cost as much as I paid for the scope. 

Edited by Kasmos, 15 June 2025 - 10:17 PM.

[vintageair]

I tried overpainting wrinkle finish once but it did not work. Aside from the overlaying paint "dulling" the crinkles the solvent also pretty much melts them away. I wondered if I had allowed the base to dry longer I may have gotten better results or if I used an acrylic final coat it would have prevented the interaction but I never tried that.

[ccwemyss]

I borrowed a 3D printer from school so I can spend part of the summer learning how to use it and then be able to teach students next year. The first thing I did was find an example of an eyepiece cap and, as part of learning about the slicer setup and options, I scaled it to make new caps for the 6x30 finder on the Pentax 100. 

 

Chip W. 

[Airship]

I have entered the use it, use it, use it phase with my new-to-me vintage C14. The set up keeps getting easier and the procedure is converging to a solution. I'm also getting a dedicated toolkit together and a case to hold all of the pieces and parts.

 

 

The next several nights look great!

 

Gonna be fun!

[Uranotopia]

Yesterday I finally got the delivery from "Ali's express" China, a solar filter for my vintage C90 - not so expensive as it would have been in Germany (but Kasakhstan seems obviously nearby China wink.gif  ). The filter film looked like all others I own, a classic silver film. Due to cloudy sky yesterday I couldn't try this new accessory immediately.

 

So today I put the new solar filter on the top of the scope, connected a 1.25 Celestron star diagonal using a 35mm adaptor to the C90's tube, because I find it better to look through 1.25" eyepieces.

But my first and thoughtfull impression was, that I see a orange-yellowish sun - not used from my two other solar filters (with Baader solar filter film)!

 

...Although the vendor (or producer?) had told in the product's description, this would be the original Baader solar filter (film)... BUT WHAT's THIS orange bowl in my eyepiece mad.gif ?
IMO the important question should be: which "Baader" solar filter did they use?

Image quality also wasn't as good as I had expected, but it might depend on turbulent seeing, as clouds were passing through. Here another test is needed.

 

 

 

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[jkmccarthy]

Sounds like the solar film you received could be similar to that which Thousand Oaks Optical incorporates into their mounted solar filters (which deliver a yellow-orange tinted view ... https://thousandoaks...camera-filters/ ) ?

[Uranotopia]

Sounds like the solar film you received could be similar to that which Thousand Oaks Optical incorporates into their mounted solar filters (which deliver a yellow-orange tinted view ... https://thousandoaks...camera-filters/ ) ?

Very interesting, so I really hope, it is a filter film of good quality (or at least of standard quality).

I think to report further, when I would have taken some images of the sun - but unfortunately here it's rainy weather.

[kjkrum]

I finally got the objective off the Bushnell Sky Chief that I picked up recently at the Goodwill bins. My wife and I couldn't turn it with one of us holding the tube and the other holding the cell. It finally budged after I struck it obliquely with a rubber mallet and then put the cell in a bench vise padded with cardboard and twisted the tube with all my might. Once it started moving it was fine. It doesn't seem to have been cross-threaded, just stuck.

 

The objective cleaned up nicely. One of the spacers was loose and the other two were stuck. I mic'ed them at .002, .003, and .007, the last probably wrinkled trying to pick it off. They were also irregularly shaped.

 

I mic'ed a few different types of self-adhesive metal foil that I have on hand. I measured each type of tape on its backing, the backing alone, and how much the tape adds to something else of known thickness. I have some aluminum HVAC tape that measures .005 and some copper foil that measures .003. I also have a 1/8" hole punch so I used that to make round spacers. I found that the .005 aluminum gets a rolled edge when punched and measures up to .008 before it's burnished down flat again. The .003 copper also exhibits this effect but much less.

 

I used the copper to make new spacers for the Sky Chief objective and then started playing around with the Newton's rings. I found it very difficult to get the rings centered and keep them centered. I used the pointed end of a golf pencil to push the spacers around and the flat end to burnish them flat and smooth. Minuscule changes in the position or flatness of the spacers can move the the rings a large distance. Very slight changes in the tightness of the retaining ring can also move the Newton's rings.

 

Tomorrow night I'll take it out and see if .003 is even the right spacing for this objective...

[Kasmos]

I finally got the objective off the Bushnell Sky Chief that I picked up recently at the Goodwill bins. My wife and I couldn't turn it with one of us holding the tube and the other holding the cell. It finally budged after I struck it obliquely with a rubber mallet and then put the cell in a bench vise padded with cardboard and twisted the tube with all my might. Once it started moving it was fine. It doesn't seem to have been cross-threaded, just stuck.

 

The objective cleaned up nicely. One of the spacers was loose and the other two were stuck. I mic'ed them at .002, .003, and .007, the last probably wrinkled trying to pick it off. They were also irregularly shaped.

 

I mic'ed a few different types of self-adhesive metal foil that I have on hand. I measured each type of tape on its backing, the backing alone, and how much the tape adds to something else of known thickness. I have some aluminum HVAC tape that measures .005 and some copper foil that measures .003. I also have a 1/8" hole punch so I used that to make round spacers. I found that the .005 aluminum gets a rolled edge when punched and measures up to .008 before it's burnished down flat again. The .003 copper also exhibits this effect but much less.

 

I used the copper to make new spacers for the Sky Chief objective and then started playing around with the Newton's rings. I found it very difficult to get the rings centered and keep them centered. I used the pointed end of a golf pencil to push the spacers around and the flat end to burnish them flat and smooth. Minuscule changes in the position or flatness of the spacers can move the the rings a large distance. Very slight changes in the tightness of the retaining ring can also move the Newton's rings.

 

Tomorrow night I'll take it out and see if .003 is even the right spacing for this objective...

.003 is usually what most people use. I used .003" self adhesive foil on the two Sky Chiefs I had. On one of them I only replaced one of the spacers and I was able to get nice centered rings so that tells me that's the right thickness. On the other scope with all three spacers replaced, the rings were centered as well. Unlike a few others, I don't remember having to fuss that much with either objective to get them centered. 

 

My Tasco 227x is probably made by the same maker and I replaced it's original damaged spacers with the same foil and it went from being a big dud, to an excellent performer!

Edited by Kasmos, 25 June 2025 - 02:18 AM.

[CHASLX200]

I shined up GP mount.  Wanna paint the AP900 black or trade it for a gray NJP-160.

[starman876]

I shined up GP mount.  Wanna paint the AP900 black or trade it for a gray NJP-160.

That sounds real cool.  Painting the 900 black.   Will look great.