[HN Gopher] DIY Telescope Mods That Transformed My Astrophotography
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DIY Telescope Mods That Transformed My Astrophotography
Author : karlperera
Score : 75 points
Date : 2025-07-15 06:53 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| karlperera wrote:
| Hey HN, I wanted to share a video on three hardware modifications
| I made to my telescope that have made a night-and-day difference
| in my astrophotography. For a while, I felt like I'd hit a
| plateau with my image quality, and the issues weren't things I
| could fix in software. The video walks through the 'why' and
| 'how' of each mod: 3d printing a Bahtinov mask: To get much
| sharper, more consistent focus across the frame. Flocking the
| tube: To dramatically increase contrast by killing stray light
| reflections inside the scope. Adding light shield and baffle: To
| reduce stray light from entering my telescope and spoiling the
| images. I tried to show the real-world results with before-and-
| after image comparisons. These were all relatively low-cost, DIY-
| friendly projects that had a much bigger impact than I expected.
| Happy to answer any questions about the process or the gear
| here!"
| madaxe_again wrote:
| My first bahtinov mask I just made out of some scrap cardboard
| - worked a treat.
|
| Now I just use an autofocuser (pegasusastro focuscube), which I
| find gives identical results, and didn't cost the world either
| (EUR130) - plus has the benefit that as the scope cools down
| through the night I'm not constantly having to stop imaging to
| refocus.
| karlperera wrote:
| Good to know this as I use a bog standard very basic focuser
| and do it manually.
| hbrav wrote:
| I also did my first one out of cardboard!
| aaron695 wrote:
| The flocking is interesting.
|
| This is how Vantablack (OMG evil) and the funny cunts like Black
| 4.0 who fought back works... in my head. They are carbon nano-
| tubes.
|
| I bought Musou Black from Japan online, it wasn't a crazy price.
| They do get damaged if touched and do have some hazards .
|
| Any who, cool video, I sent it to my telescope nerd friends. It's
| nice to be iteratively improving things. It's a great way to save
| money and understand the tech before you might buy a more
| expensive model.
| dmead wrote:
| vantablack is not an option because it has a tendency to flake
| off and hit the glass.
| konsalexee wrote:
| Amazing work mate! Your work makes me want to get involved with
| astrophotography
| dylan604 wrote:
| This way madness lies. So you buy a telescope and a camera.
| Then you need a telescope for your telescope with a new camera
| to use for guided tracking. Then you want another telescope
| because the first one isn't just right. Do you keep the first
| one, or sell it to help pay for the new one. This depends on if
| you're single or married. If married, you'll probably sell the
| first one, or at least tell her that's what you _will_ do.
| Eventually. Now you have 3 telescopes, but need a fourth to
| guide the new scope. Oh, and a new camera. Oh, and a new mount.
| Now you need a new SUV to carry it all. Then you'll notice that
| every dark sky you have free time, it'll be cloudy. Every dark
| sky you don't have free time, it will be crystal clear.
|
| You've been warned! So was I. The madness has clearly set in
| karlperera wrote:
| Very true mate. Fortunately, I have a very clear sky and
| maybe 300 plus days when it's crystal clear. It is a rabbit
| hole I was warned but didn't listen!
| dylan604 wrote:
| At the edit for the light shield, all I could think of is how he
| needs a light shield on that window and maybe flock his room to
| knock back all of that stray light from washing out his image.
|
| From the accent, I'd say that you might have more than your share
| of nights where the temps dip below dew point. Adding a heater to
| the tube will help avoid the mirrors fogging up. It's much warmer
| in my part of the world, so dew points are rarely an issue.
| However, that extra warmth tends to make the seeing much less
| clear. I'm going to risk it during next weekend's dark skies. I'm
| spending money on it, so that pretty much guarantees cloudy
| conditions.
| karlperera wrote:
| No I don't even use a dew heater because it's warm here. I am
| imaging from Turkey where skies are blue and it does tend to be
| windy as I'm near the sea.
| anjc wrote:
| Nice video. Same exposure/stacking/filtering/conditions in the
| before and afters? Cave nebula shows a big difference in results
| karlperera wrote:
| Tried to keep them as near as possible but not exactly the same
| no. I still think the differences can be shown comparatively
| though.
| anjc wrote:
| Yeah in any case they're great pics. Will definitely try the
| flocking suggestion.
| dmead wrote:
| this is mine.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnmwdfzYTbU
|
| I was having problems with focus flop on this short refractor, so
| i printed a sleeve that attaches to a linear bearing on the
| losmandy plate.
|
| the setup has several more 3d printed changes since I recorded
| this. The 'car' that carries the camera is longer and has two
| rails now.
|
| I'm pretty sure this is novel. Its completely eliminated focus
| flop without spending like 3k on a nightcrawler.
| Retr0id wrote:
| I flocked a camera lens recently (specifically, a teleconverter)
| - much the same process, just smaller scale. I wonder why they
| don't just manufacture them like this in the first place?
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