2026-03-05

Today while reading up and researching Sirius b, I came across something called an “occultation bar”. I guess this is a common DIY temporary modification done to an eyepiece in order to block out the light scatter from very bright objects in order to see less bright objects nearby.

The process involves taking an opaque and flexible material with hard flat edges, cutting a very small strip of it, and taping it to the field-stop of an eyepiece. This is commonly done with tin foil, but after a few attempts I found a small strip of magnetic tape to be easier to work with. I was able to affix it to the field stop of my Svbony SV135 7mm to 21mm zoom eyepiece. The recommendation is to “bend” the material up into the field-stop to place it closer to the focal plane of the eyepiece.

The result is a clearly defined black “bar” across the FoV that you can position over the bright object, diminishing the light scatter and allowing the dimmer objects behind it to stand out more clearly.

I wasn’t able to use it tonight, but it’s prepped and ready to go for my next attempt at Sirius b.

7:31PM

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Found half way between Orion and Taurus south of 110 Tauri. All stars in the system were noticeable at 55x but I zoomed into 110x for better framing.

I was planning on hitting 66 Eridani and Sirius b, but the clouds were moving in quickly and I had to cut the session short tonight.