Re: ATM Flatter than Flat Paaint - NEW DISCOVERY

[Joe Mayenschein <mayen1@mwt.net>]

Ok I'll bite,, What is Black Beauty?

Joe

Reed Spaulding wrote:

> Hey guys,
>             Here is an idea my dad and I tried on a telescope we are helping
> my sister build.  We mixed Flat black paint with Black Beauty, and corn
> starch, which acts as a flatting agent.  We used a small plastic drill type
> paint stirrer mounted in the drill press with the can of paint on the drill
> table.  We then mixed in a liberal amount of corn starch and BB.   Then we
> got a piece of paper and painted a small area on it.  Then we heated the
> paper with a heat gun to accelerate the drying.  It is really gritty and
> absorbs 99.9% of all the  light striking it, especially at low angles.  My
> sister then painted it on the inside of the tube, (The scope is a four inch,
> therefore a 5.5" id tube.) when she discovered that the stuff is hard on the
> knuckles when they rub on the opposite side of the tube from where you are
> applying the paint.  Lesson, Be VERRYYYY careful when painting  small tubes.
> This was yesterday, Today when I looked down the tube I saw some very slight
> reflections coming off areas that  she had missed (We tried straight Flat
> black before, with minimal success) so I decided to recoat.  Well it is
> drying now and is the blackest black I have seen!  I can't wait to try this
> thing out, I wonder how much of a difference in image quality this will
> induce.
>
> Happy ATMing, and Clear Skies,
>                                                 Nusto Nate