Materials, parts & consumables
The filters, finders and fittings a telescope runs on
23 categories of glass, fittings and small equipment, judged the same way as the instruments: by what they change, and whether the cheaper option already does the job. A part only helps if it matches what you own exactly — a filter has to cut the thread your eyepiece carries, and a solar filter cell has to close on the outside diameter of the tube rather than on the aperture of its optics.
Browse by category
- Solar filters Full aperture, in front of the telescope, and nowhere else 1
- Moon filters A full Moon in a large telescope is genuinely too bright 3
- Light pollution filters Useful against some lamps, and honest about the rest 2
- Color planetary filters Each color suppresses a contrast so another one shows 1
- Filter wheels Change the filter without touching the focus 2
- Phone adapters Alignment in three axes, held by one clamp 1
- Red dot finders No magnification, both eyes open, and pointing becomes obvious 5
- Counterweights Balance is what lets a small motor move a heavy tube 1
In the works tonight
Writing is still under way in these families. They are listed so that the shape of the catalog can be seen, and so you know what is coming, and deliberately not linked until there is something to read.
- Focal reducers
- Star diagonals
- Extension tubes
- T-ring adapters
- Collimators
- Bahtinov masks
- Polar scopes
- Dew control
- Telescope cases
- Telescope covers
- Red flashlights
- Planispheres
- Dovetail bars
- Observing chairs
- Eclipse glasses