Flocking is like very low pile carpeting for your telescope. It absorbs, eats, stray-light. This is where I had blackened and flocked a 6"
f/5 Newtonian...
I use the self-adhesive flocking, and cut it into strips...
The sheet has a wax-paper like backing, and it's super-slick. You have to be careful and not let the paper fall on the floor after removing it from the flocking, else you may fall on the floor after stepping on it.
I get my own from Protostar...
https://fpi-protostar.com/hitack.htm
In the past, it has been acknowledged as the best. But nowadays it's the same as what Scope Stuff sells...
http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_flok.htm
The stuff I'm seeing on Amazon may or may not be suitable. Flocking specifically for telescopes is dead-black...
- flocking2.jpg (15.03 KiB) Viewed 3820 times
My camera had a difficult time taking that image, as a result.
Given that the length of the tube of your achromat is, what, less than 6"? I think you could splurge and flock the entire tube. Flock the inside of the dew-shield whilst you're at it, if you choose to flock indeed.
I blacken where I cannot flock...
I either spray it, or paint by hand with small brushes, depending.
Those matte-black paints are the deepest you can get readily, and from Wal-Mart or Home Depot. Always shake the living devil out of the can before spraying, and so to mix it well.
When blackening the edges of a doublet's lenses, I paint those by hand...
Note how the doublet almost disappears afterwards...
That's what you want it to do. You actually don't want anything between your eye and the object you're observing. But, alas, we must make exceptions, and include the doublet.
In the end, you want the inside of the telescope to be utterly dead to reflections and stray-light sources.
"Look, son! Up there!" His son shouted back, "I see it! What is it?" The father regaled, "The galaxy! Andromeda! Our origin, our destiny!" And so the boy was hooked, and for the rest of his natural life.
"
Desserts tend to corrupt, and absolutely delicious desserts corrupt absolutely." - Chef Acton
Alan
Apochromat: Takahashi FS-102 4" f/8 -
Achromats: Meade S102 102mm f/5.9, Antares 805 80mm f/6(
flocked & blackened), Meade "Polaris" 70mm f/12.9, Sears(Towa) #4-6340 50mm f/12(
flocked & blackened) -
Newtonians: Orion 6" f/5(
flocked & blackened) -
Catadioptrics: Explore Scientific 127mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain, Celestron "PowerSeeker" 127mm f/8 "Bird Jones" reflector(
modified, flocked, blackened, and collimated!) -
Mounts: Meade LX70(EQ-5), Astro-Tech Voyager I alt-azimuth