(meteorobs) Glass domes (was "Whizzer" - magnified anddissected)

[Jim Wooddell]

Hi Mark and all!

The other issue is light refraction...if that is the right word.  Shine a 
light on the plastic dome at various angles and see what happens.  A 
question might be would a glass dome reduce or eliminate this???  I think it 
would.
Not all sites are free from external light pollution.


Jim

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Bowling" <minador at yahoo.com>
To: "Meteor science and meteor observing" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:27 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Glass domes (was "Whizzer" - magnified 
anddissected)


Ok, so acrylic is still more desirable than the glass domes from Edmund. Are 
the acrylic domes from Edmund Optics a good deal? Who is a good source for 
those?

With respect to chemical breakdown/color, my dome has done fine the past 16 
months or so. My problem are scratches and chips which are bothersome. I 
would really like a replacement and I was given mine by a friend and I don't 
know the source.

Wishing all your cameras and/or eyes a target rich environment,
Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
To: Meteor science and meteor observing <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Cc:
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2012 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Glass domes (was "Whizzer" - magnified and 
dissected)

Barring ground glass (very expensive), I think acrylic is the material
of choice. We've had some of our domes out for more than seven years
now, at high altitude where it's sunny nearly every day, with no milking
and no weathering. They look like new. Obviously, there are different
grades of acrylic- I suspect ours have a UV blocker. And optically, ours
are near perfect- whatever distortion they introduce isn't detectable
after astrometric calibration (i.e. the calibration parameters are the
same with and without the domes).

Chris

*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 1/6/2012 2:25 PM, James Beauchamp wrote:
> Hi Mark. I've been wondering the same thing as Tom. My acrylic dome is 
> starting to milk due to the UV and weather exposure.
> There doesn't seem to be much "middle ground" with domes. I don't need a 
> dome with precision laboratory optical quality, yet want something better 
> than the acrylic.
> Hobby manufacturer maybe?
>
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