New Look for Old Telescope

I'm still mending a sprained MCL in my right knee so I'm still not really accomplishing much on my To-Do list.  Every now and then, however, I feel halfway decent and am able to jump into a small little project at the kitchen table.  This still needs to be short because I need to keep changing positions...  no sitting for a long period of time, no standing for a long period of time.  This keeps the size of these occasional projects on the very small side.  Plus, the longer I work on any project, the more likely I am to do something stupid with my knee.  The last thing I want at this point is to be set back to square one yet again.  

I have this old Celestron 70mm refractor telescope that, in recent years, I adapted to a different type of mount.  In order to do that upgrade, I needed to remove a bunch of mounting hardware that was bolted through the optical tube.  This hardware wasn't needed and was in the way of the new mounting cradle rings and dovetail bar so most of the hardware needed to be removed.  

Unfortunately, removing the hardware left holes in the tube.  These holes allowed some light into the tube and this can affect contrast so I've always planned to come back to upgrading this telescope with a new tube of some sort.  If I was going to replace the tube, I was thinking that making it a brass or polished aluminum telescope would look the best.  That type of upgrade, however, would be quite a large and long project so this was just another project that I kept tucked away in the back of my mind.  

About two weeks ago, I came across an article written by someone who used automotive vinyl wrap to cover his telescope.  I instantly thought of my old Celestron refractor telescope and thought to myself, "Hmmm...  that might work!"

There are all sorts of patterns and finishes available in this slightly stretchy vinyl wrap so the first thing I needed to do was choose a pattern and color.  I chose a gloss black carbon fiber wrap.  

In order to wrap the optical tube, I needed to completely disassemble the telescope.  I removed the dew shield, the objective lens cell and then removed the focuser on the other end of the telescope.  I also removed a couple of small pieces of hardware that was leftover from my first upgrade.  Then I cleaned the tube with isopropyl alcohol and set it aside.  

I did the same with a small finder scope too.  I figured it would be a good idea to practice on a small finder scope first.  The finder scope was easy to wrap.  I measured a rough size allowing about a quarter of an inch of overlap on the bottom of the tube as well as about a quarter of an inch on each end.  I trimmed the front edge and the rear edge and then reassembled it.  I thought, "Wow, that was easy!"  I applied some heat from a hair blow dryer to the newly wrapped tube for a few minutes and then turned to the larger telescope.

I knew the larger optical tube of my telescope wouldn't be as easy but it wasn't bad.  It probably would have been easier with a couple of extra hands to hold the wrap but I managed by myself.  I had a few small air bubbles to remove but, with some patience, it is fairly easy to "slide" those air bubbles to an edge or to one of the many holes in this tube left behind from old hardware.  The glue for the vinyl wrap is just moderately sticky at this point (more than shelf liner but less than contact paper).  I could even remove the vinyl wrap if I wanted to start over.  If the vinyl wrap ends up a wrinkled mess, you just apply some heat from a heat gun or a hair blow dryer to it and the wrinkles come out in seconds.  

After getting all the air bubbles out by nudging them to the front and back edges of the tube, I then then trimmed off the excess and used a soldering iron to melt holes into the vinyl so I can reinstall the focuser.  I then applied heat from a blow dryer.  This would set up the glue a bit more.  

In the end, the scope looks nice!  I will no longer get any stray light entering the tube from the side.  I placed the wrapped tube back into the cradle rings...  reassembled the front objective cell and dew shield and then reassembled the focuser on the back end.  It was looking very nice!

I wanted to test the scope to make sure the focuser was squared to the front objective lens cell by doing a star test but it was cloudy for the following two nights.  This was followed by a very clear night so I grabbed this light telescope and hobbled outside to do a star test.  

Inside focus gave me nice concentric rings...  outside focus gave me nice concentric rings...  then I pointed it at Jupiter which was a big bright object in the sky and the views of Jupiter through this little telescope were better than ever!  I had a semi-APO filter on my diagonal and this seemed to cut down almost all of the chromatic aberration that is normally seen on overly bright objects like Jupiter.  I was pretty amazed at the views actually.  I looked at a few other objects in the sky before hobbling back inside.  All objects looked really good. 

This particular night was so clear that I was wishing my knee and health were well enough to pull out one of my better telescopes on a bigger, better mount.  It was a rare night and I could have had a great session of either observing or imaging.  My knee was hurting at this point though because of the uneven ground so it was time to call it a night.

This $89 telescope is performing very well now and it even looks pretty sharp!