Equipment Tip: Use adhesive craft felt on cold surfaces

Most telescopes are made of metal. Metal gets very cold in the winter and touching it, even with gloves on, sends a chill through your body. Even on relatively warmer nights, metal will still get uncomfortably cold to the touch. This tip is mostly applicable to Dobsonians that require you to grab the tube to position it, but may also apply to other scopes and gear.

Putting patches of adhesive craft felt on touch points can really help keep your fingers from freezing.

Next time you are out observing, take mental notes of where you typically touch the telescope. If these points are metal and relatively smooth, you can cut pieces of adhesive felt to fit. 

On my 10 inch Dobsonian, I have craft felt along the lip of the aperture and on the lower half of the tube where I rest my hands when moving the tube (arrows in image at left). For shorter tubes, I'll place the felt along part of the edge of the mirror holder at the back. It really does make a difference.

Equipment Tip: Stop your dovetail clamp from marring your dovetail

There's a joke somewhere in the title of this tip, I just know it. Not sure what it is, though. Anyway, here's one for those who have a dovetail clamp on their mount that has a rounded screw tip or tips that hold the scope to the dovetail. 

The problem is, the screw is steel and the dovetail is aluminum, so it leaves dimple marks in the dovetail. If this doesn't bother you, problem solved. But for others, it's a little irksome. It's kind of like focusers with thumbscrews that mark up your eyepiece barrel. It doesn't affect the function at all, but we'd rather keep the eyepiece clear of marks.

Some people just buy a new dovetail clamp that has a flat contact surface, such as the Svbony medium dovetail clamp shown at left. But something like that will cost you around $25-40, and Astronomerica is not about wasteful spending.

Instead, get a 1/2" x 1/16" thick flat bar of aluminum, cut it to length easily with a hacksaw, file and sand the edges smooth (be careful, they will be sharp!), and use double-sided tape to stick it to your dovetail. Problem solved and you didn't have to buy a new dovetail clamp. Now the clamp only mars the aluminum piece.

I found just such a piece of aluminum for a few bucks at my local home improvement store. It's three feet long, so enough to protect the dovetails of even a very large family of amateur astronomers!

Equipment Tip: Add a cell phone holder to your observing chair

More and more I find I like to observe with my binoculars, using my Bino Body Mount. The problem with binocular observing is it takes two hands. I like to use Sky Safari on my phone as my charting app, and I got tired of my phone sliding off of my ever-expanding belly onto the dewy grass in the dark. It's uncomfortable to constantly be reaching over for the phone on a fold up table, so I needed something else.

A cheap gooseneck cell phone holder came free with something else I bought, so I use that, but there are plenty of similar ones such as this one you can buy. I recommend a clip rather than a clamp just for ease of use in the dark, although a clamp might work better for certain chairs. I clip it onto the arm of my zero gravity chair and I have my chart right there at hand, easily using the app with one hand while the Bino Body Mount is perched on my shoulders.

I did find that, at least on my chair, I had to clip the holder behind the locking knob (some chairs have a lever) or the arm would slide past the knob when I leaned the chair back and knock the holder off the chair. Behind the knob there is no obstruction, so I can adjust the chair in any position and the holder will stay on.

Yeah, they wobble like crazy, but when you're using your phone you're holding it steady in your hand. The holder is just to keep it handy within easy reach so you know where it is.