Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 72

ASTRONOMER'S WORKBENCH by Jerry Oltion

Easy and
Eﬀective
Light
Barriers

Ken Martin's light-blocking panels quickly turn
his driveway into a ﬁne
observatory.

Block your neighbors' lights
with these simple panels.
IT SEEMS LIKE NEARLY EVERYONE

with a telescope also has a neighbor or
twelve with unshielded porch lights.
Even if they're good neighbors and
keep the lights off when they're not
actually using them, interior lights
still leave brightly lit windows. Plus, if
you observe from your driveway there
are the headlights of passing cars, the
inevitable street lights, and the person
walking his dog with an aircraft landing light for a headlamp.
Amateur astronomers need a reliable way to block all those lights so we
can protect what dark adaptation we
can achieve. I've tried tarps suspended
from poles, cut-open
cardboard refrigerator boxes, strategically
parked cars, and even,
I confess, a slingshot.
None of those worked
as well as the solution
that Oregon amateur
Ken Martin came up
with: multiple panels of
light-blocking material
that he can place in
whatever arrangement
is necessary.
Ken looked for
inspiration online and
reports that "After
reviewing the many
DIY dark sky panel
projects in the 'Carol's
Picks' thread on Cloudy
72

OCTOBE R 2 018 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

Nights, I decided to make these PVC
panels." Their construction is simple,
straightforward, and relatively inexpensive, yet they're lightweight, durable,
and easy to use.
Ken used ¾-inch class 200 PVC pipe
for the framework. Class 200 is the
lightweight, thin-walled stuff, which
is plenty strong for this application. A
handful of tees and elbows connect the
pipe sections into rectangles, and widehead screws hold the fabric to the pipe.
Using the proper fabric is the key to
success. Plastic tarps, canvas, denim,
duck cloth, and similar materials may
look dense by day, but at night with
dark-adapted eyes it's
surprising how much

light gets through them. To really block
all the light, Ken found that Duvetyne,
a black cotton twill commonly used in
the stage and movie industry, is ideal. It
comes in various widths, so Ken chose
54-inch so he could make his panels 4
feet wide and have 6 inches of cloth left
to overlap onto the next panel. He made
his panels 6 feet tall, which is high
enough to block neighbors' lights but
doesn't cut off too much sky. Duvetyne
comes in 8-, 12-, or 16-ounce weights.
Ken used the 16-ounce for maximum
light blocking.
Assembly is simple: Just cut the pipe
to length, insert it in the ﬁttings, and
attach the fabric. Ken says "I chose not
to glue the ﬁttings, as I didn't feel it

tp Above: The panels are made of PVC pipe and Duvetyne fabric.
Top left: Velcro straps hold the panels together. Bottom left: Wide-headed screws
hold the cloth to the pipe. Ken painted the heads black.

Sky and Telescope - October 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - October 2018

Contents
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 1
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 3
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 4
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 5
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 6
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 7
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 8
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 9
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 10
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 11
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Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 13
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Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 17
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 18
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Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 21
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Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - 84
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - Cover3
Sky and Telescope - October 2018 - Cover4
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