Telescopes should be white.

[mickoking]

G,day

I believe the best colour for a telescope is white (with bits of black) it is something thats been stuck in my head since I was a kid. A gleaming white tube just seems more purposefull, more profesional than other colours. What does every one else think?:confuse3:


For the record I don't own a white scope which is really sad. :nerd:

[h0ughy]

black, or blue, but only white for you??????

[ballaratdragons]

I know what you mean Micko. As a kid I remember that telescopes were meant to be White. With black focuser, black mount and the occasional chrome screw. It looks more scientific!

And Red ones where toy telescopes.

I have a silver scope! :lol:

[mickoking]

Eyepieces should also only have GREEN writing engraved on their sides :P

[asimov]

My first couple of scopes when I was a kid were white (refractors) Then I built an 8" reflector, which I painted white with black EQ mount. A few years later I re-painted the OTA a deep red, which looked fantastic!

Now I have a white refractor, a black refractor, blue reflector, white reflector.

My favorites would be: white refractor/black mount, deep red reflector tube/black mount.

[mick pinner]

l don't know about the green writing on the ep's but l do agree the classic colour is white, although l do enjoy the variety of colours on the new scopes, probably should be more variety too just to liven up the conservative view of people towards astronomy.

[asimov]

Oh...Another thing I remember when I was a kid...White refractors always had a black dew shield. You don't see that much these days.

[ballaratdragons]

Haha! I make all my dew shields black! That's how they looked when I was a kid and I'm stuck with it.

Look at the dew shield extension I made for my finder and the front of my home-made quickfinder.

Habit I guess :lol:

[Stu]

:lol: pmsl...
(Pisss My Self Laughing)

You legend.

I think all refractors should be white. It should be law.

SCT's black, Mak's hand painted picture or tie-die colors, Newts sliver (with brown spots) and Astronomers should wear golfers shorts, socks with sandles and have pocket protectors for their red light pens. :P
:camera:

[ballaratdragons]

And those of us that wear glasses should replace them with 'Buddy Holly' thick black-framed glasses! and on our checkered cotton shirts we should always have the top button done up with no tie.

Revenge of the Nerds!!! Great movie! :lol:

[Robert_T]

ummm... white's nice, but the most important thing is they should be SHINY ;)

[Starkler]

Ever notice that those with white newts often place a big black felt square on their OTA around their focuser? White = bad if you have to look at it while observing.

[Roger Davis]

Ever heard of black body radiation?
Which do you reckon would cool down faster, a black or white tube?
Black at night cools down faster.
Now if we could only apply that to our mirrors ... nah, they have to be shiny.

[slice of heaven]

Yes, white is the more distinguished colour for a scope.
I've 2 white reflectors and wouldn't dream of changing their colour, I've thought of painting the silver one white though.

Geoff.. re black felt..I have never seen the need for black felt on mine , the white doesn't look white in the dark :shrug:

[Roger Davis]

Reason for the black around the tube near the eyepiece is to stop back reflection off the tube whilst observing. Most observers I know keep both eyes open, so the black helps blacken the background for the non-dominant eye.

[cometcatcher]

I made the mistake of using an all white tube for my 16" Newtonian. Reflections were bad so I painted the area around the eyepiece flat black. All fixed. :)

But yes refractors look nice with a glossy white tube. I have an old Tasco 80mm f15 refractor with white tube and black dew shield. So much dust on it now it's grey instead of white. :P

[ving]

dark blue or black thanks... yeah you might trip over it but think of it this way, white reflects light.:)

[astro_south]

Micko - does the image below fit your ideals (white with bits of black)?

When I first got this I was going to paint over the white, but due to my apathy about doing the job the white has slowly grown on me. I may still paint it one day :D

[jjjnettie]

Have you ever stumbled over a White scope at night? No, it is always the dark coloured ones that blend in with the background.

[iceman]

I just put some black felt around my focuser as well (the other day), for the reasons Roger stated. Haven't had a first light with it yet, but it looks nice.

[mickoking]

It's good mate your scopes fine by me. I once owned a 350mm truss Dob and it was natural wood / silver truss colour sadly no white 'n' black to be seen (but it still looked good).

[Astroman]

My 8" used to be white, I repainted it white when I remade it but couldnt keep both eye's open when observing (less strain on eyes, makes a longer night) so I decided to change the colour to Black. :eyepop:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/astroman02/observatory/scope_obs.jpg - white scope

http://www.theastroweb.com/astronomy/telescopes/scopedome.jpg - black scope

[Thiink]

I have been thinking about changing my OTA colour for a while now, the stocko GSO gray is really boring! I was thinking white OTA leaving the dob base black, but having seen astromans black newt OTA and white box it sure looks the goods! If it isnt patented Andrew I might follow suit.

Can you painting gurus let us know whats involved with repainting an OTA in terms of stripping the current paint, priming, and choice of paint to use when repainting?

[Ziggy Stardust]

I have both a black refractor and a white one.

The white one is more impressive yeah the Borge stands out a mile, where the black Helois Skywatcher,,,just fades into the night. The meade LX is classic blue,,, and I find I can never take my mates big orange reflector serious... even though they top scopes...lol.:nerd:

I do how ever, invest in a pack of those little glow sticks that they sell in the fishing stores, they tiny and made to clip on lines at night, so you can see the bites, well they tops for marking out tripod legs, tips and ends of scopes,... etc...:prey2:

but what I'd love to do is Chrome my big 6inch refractor...lol... I saw a dob, with a fake chrome tube a few years back... everyone just stood and stared at it for ages at ScopeX... loooked like an Apolo launch vehicle, then some twit took some tinfoil from the kitchen and made a cone for the top... and all hell broke loose...lol :nerd: :P

Tony

[bird]

Yes, white is the most aesthetic colour - but white paint has the worst thermal properties thanks to it's primary ingredient of Titanium Oxide (TiO or maybe TiO2 - can't remember??). This white pigment radiates heat strongly, causing the tube to cool faster than it should. With a white scope you'll find that it dews up very early and you'll have prolonged problems with tube currents.

Search around on the net, there's information available on this.

It turns out that the best behaved material for tubes is unpainted aluminium. Looks pretty too :-)

Bird

[mickoking]

You learn something every day :confuse3: Unpainted aluminium sounds great and as Ziggy aluded to chrome sounds interesting as well.

[DRCORTEX]

What, no NRL branded scopes - RED and GREEN, WHITE and RED, etc, they would have to be a big seller :lol:

ciao

Lance

[rumples riot]

Mines black with orange writing, and the other is blue with white and red writing. White does not seem to matter. Still back in the good old days white was the a good colour. Me personally, I am not fussed on the colour. I once owned a red one.