Reducing Glare from Viewing Monitor

I am preparing for the 2019 Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) in June where there will be both Video Astronomy and Visual Astronomy setups in different areas, but still near each other. When you just have Video Astronomy setups together, stray light is not an irritation.  We all are looking at our monitors. When there are others in the area relying on their night vision to visually look through eyepieces, then nearby light from monitors can be an issue. The main glare is not really from the image from the camera.  The problem comes more from the brighter control areas and tabs around the image area of the screen.
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Two years ago, when I first attended the GCSP, I realized this is an issue that needs to be addressed when using Video Astronomy near Visual Astronomy setups. It was even suggested that we tape something over the bright control parts of the screen to reduce the amount of light given off.  I immediately thought that I am not going to put tape on my monitor screen!  We managed to make some adjustments and did OK, but I felt I needed to find a good solution for next time.

So here it is two years later, and even though as before we have our own Video Astronomy area, there are Visual Astronomy areas somewhat nearby.  We need to try to keep the light from our monitors at a minimum to not affect other’s night vision. I can shield the light coming from my laptop video screen that I work from by putting it inside a cloth (or plastic) enclosure. I like to use a LapDome I purchased from Amazon that helps contain the light from the laptop and keeps dew off my laptop. The dome is also very compact when folded up and easy to carry.​

I can set up a second monitor for others to also view the image from the video astronomy camera, but the white control areas on the screen around the actual camera image are quite bright when it is really dark outside.  The software I’m using does not have a way to just display the camera image on a second screen without losing access to some of the controls for the DS10c USB3 camera.  Putting the second monitor inside a plastic bin helps cut down on its stray light some, but the display is still too bright.​

Then I reconsidered the simple suggestion from two years ago to cover up the control areas on the second monitor. Velcro has come to the rescue!  I put Velcro all around the 4 edges of my monitor screen. 

Then I cut out four black “bars” of specific shapes from a black fiber board and put short Velcro strips on the back of them at key places. 

Now I can “stick” these black fiber board bars onto the Velcro around the screen to mask everything except the camera image. It makes for an interesting looking monitor, but it works!  ​

And this is adjustable.  If I modify the control layout during setup, I can easily relocate these black masks as needed. The black masks are large enough to extend beyond the LCD screen so they can be moved in/out and up/down as needed. If you don’t want the “adjustable” feature, just cut out the masks close to the specific sizes needed. Small scroll bars will appear on the left and bottom of the image when you zoom in, and I make sure I have the black masks covering those portions of the screen so a bright line is not seen when I zoom in. Even though this 21.5” monitor is effectively “reduced” to a 16” viewing area, the image is still a nice size and is bigger than my 14” laptop.

​The second monitor duplicates exactly what I have on my laptop, including control areas and the camera image area. But with the black fiber board overlay covering up portions of the LCD screen of the second viewing monitor, just the camera image area is visible. That way I have access to everything on the laptop but only the camera image is visible on the second monitor.

The above image was taken with a flash.  When it is dark, all you see of the viewing monitor is a nice Video Astronomy Camera image. ​

It turns out this was actually a fairly easy, low cost, and very simple solution.
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