Zac's 14" and Home Made Shroud . . .

Zac, in Georgetown, Kentucky, built a 3-strut telescope with Easy Transport Telescope option from one of our kits. Here, he discusses a shroud of his own design. I hope you find it interesting and as informative as I.
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Dennis, 

After some tinkering and carful fabric selection, I have come up with a shroud for my scope thats both light weight and easy to put on and take off. It also gives me access to the support poles so I can move the weight and get to my DCS. 

First I made a new kydex shroud around the secondary mirror. Its 3/32" thick and 8" tall, its secured using the spiders support brackets and three more screws to make it very ridged. 

Next I made a Kydex ring 2.5" tall that will insert into the lower half of the scope and made notches in it so that it would spin to lock onto three bolts screwed into the inside of the scope. 

The fabric I used is ripstop industrial nylon from joann fabrics at 7$ a yard, two yards were needed and they were sewed for an exact fit. I also sewed another 1/2" tall ring into the bottom edge of the shroud that would fit over the locking ring made earlier.

now after you assemble the scope, I can simply lock the lower ring onto the scope and using velcro secure the top of the shroud to the secondary cage. 

The fabric is light enough and with zero stretch it stays out of the light path completely. 

I tested the scope last night during a club meeting and my contrast improved to such an extent that I could definitely make out color in the ring nebula, the veil nebula (with O3 filter) looked fantastic.

Attached you will find some pictures of the finished shroud, its the third one I made because I had to learn how to run the sewing machine....

the extra kydex from amazon and fabric and velcro means I have about 55$ worth of materials in the shroud. Not bad for added mirror protection and better viewing. 

Zachary