Materials, parts & consumables
The materials and parts a machine 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 6
- 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 3
- Colour planetary filters Each colour suppresses a contrast so another one shows 2
- Filter wheels Change the filter without touching the focus 7
- Focal reducers Shorter focal length, wider field, shorter exposures 7
- Star diagonals A right angle that saves the neck and flips the view 2
- Extension tubes The cheapest fix for a focus that cannot be reached 6
- T-ring adapters Two threads and one flange distance between camera and sky 7
- Phone adapters Alignment in three axes, held by one clamp 7
- Collimators A reflector out of true performs like a smaller telescope 6
- Bahtinov masks A diffraction pattern that makes focus a symmetry, not a judgement 1
- Red dot finders No magnification, both eyes open, and pointing becomes obvious 4
- Polar scopes The pole is not where Polaris is, and the reticle knows it 6
- Dew control Glass cools by radiation below the air, and the night wins 6
- Telescope cases Internal dimensions, not the class of the shell 7
- Telescope covers For the instrument that stays outside between sessions 4
- Red torches Twenty minutes of dark adaptation, lost in one white flash 6
- Planispheres A disc, a date and an hour — and no battery at all 3
- Counterweights Balance is what lets a small motor move a heavy tube 6
- Dovetail bars Two widths, no compromise, and one saddle to satisfy 7
- Observing chairs A seated observer sees more, and it is not about comfort 7
- Eclipse glasses Read the standard the listing cites, and the maker’s instructions 7