When I was imaging the Whirlpool galaxy, I didn’t get too far before my secondary mirror was completely coated in dew. I also noticed that even dim stray light would affect the background of my images. So, I needed to solve these problems.
A commercial fabric light shroud is available for the Skywatchers, but at $130, I thought that seemed like a little much for is essentially a vinyl bag. I purchased some ABS plastic sheet on Amazon, but it was way too thick and heavy to use. So, I did what many others do, and purchased a couple of cheap yoga mats. I used one inch wide strips of the ABS to create a frame for the yoga mat, as it was a bit too weak to hold itself in a nice, cylindrical shape. Then, I coated the inside with flocked adhesive sheets, as I did with the rest of the inside of the OTA.
It worked great! All of my images had a nice, consistent, improved background, even with an almost full moon out. And as soon as the sun was all the way down, dew coated the entire exterior of the metal telescope tube, but not a drop was on the mirrors! Success!
