Raynox 5320

Chris S. · Post by **Chris S.** » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:51 am

Andy Davies wrote:I don't think that either Protostar or Beetle Black are available in or from the the UK easily.

Andy, I suggest you try the following: Go into a large crafts store. Here in the states, this would mean the likes of JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, or perhaps Michaels. These stores carrya a wide range of items for sewing, knitting, and chrochetting, as well as a wide range of things for painting, framing, flower arranging, and other forms of crafting. Ask for the "scrapbooking section." There, you may find a rack with 8.5 x11 inch pieces of felt-like material of various colors. One of these colors may be a very dark black. Beetle Black was one such, but I doubt it's the only one. The couple times I've checked, I've found profoundly black, reasonably-well-made sheets of material intended for scrapbookers. My guess is that while the suppliers and names change, people who do scrapbooking have a continuing need for a dark black material. These sheets have been priced at $1-2 USD. (This said, I still use Protostar.)

--Chris S.

Peter M. Macdonald · Post by **Peter M. Macdonald** » Wed Jan 22, 2020 4:16 am

Flocking materials are available in the UK from some of the specialised dealers in astronomical telescopes. This one seems to get good reviews on some on the astronomy for a - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telesc ... erial.html . The usual caveats about not having tried it and not having dealt with the vendor. However, it looks cheap enough to give it a try.

RobertOToole · Post by **RobertOToole** » Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:01 pm

This is a resurrected 3 year old thread

But anyway, I still have a 30 foot roll of Protostar with cobwebs from not using it, if anyone wants a few feet just send me an address and I can post it.

I've mentioned this offer before and had maybe one person take me up on the offer, but the offer still stands anyway.

Best,

Robert

Chris S. · Post by **Chris S.** » Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:32 am

RobertOToole wrote:This is a resurrected 3 year old thread

My bad. I'd looked up this thread to answer an off-line question about the Raynox 5320. Later, when I went to close my browser tabs before bed time, I noticed only the unanswered question at the end. Often during the day, if I see a question and don't have time to answer it then, I leave the tab open to deal with later. Thinking this was one of those, I answered it--more than two years too late!

RobertOToole wrote:But anyway, I still have a 30 foot roll of Protostar with cobwebs from not using it, if anyone wants a few feet just send me an address and I can post it.

I've mentioned this offer before and had maybe one person take me up on the offer, but the offer still stands anyway.

Thirty feet is a lot! My purchase was much less--maybe four feet? It's been very useful and I'm glad to have it--but my supply will likely last me for life, unless I decide to build a really big telescope--in that case, I'll whom to call!

--Chris S.

kaleun96 · Post by **kaleun96** » Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:49 am

On this topic, I found the recent video from Applied Science quite interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr1AiExSAnU

He mentions that the reflectance of store-bought black velvet was about 0.5% if I remember correctly.

RobertOToole · Post by **RobertOToole** » Thu Jan 23, 2020 10:06 am

Chris S. wrote: Thirty feet is a lot! My purchase was much less--maybe four feet? It's been very useful and I'm glad to have it--but my supply will likely last me for life, unless I decide to build a really big telescope--in that case, I'll whom to call!

--Chris S.

Came in a bulk roll, about 24 inches across

Seemed like a good idea at the time, now it just takes up space

Robert