A Dew Shield modification

Having purchased a Celestron Flexible dew shield I found that when installed on the scope it had a tendency to end up oblong on the end rather than remain round. To fix this I figured a lightweight circular rod would hold it in a round configuration. This is what I came up with:

Here is the assembled rod. It is a piece of 1/8" steel rod purchased from Lowes although a smaller diameter and aluminum would work just a well. It is bent into the rough circular shape using the corrector dust cover as a template. To stay in that shape will require some gentle bending of the rod. It is formed into shape and then the excess is removed. I used a pair of heavy duty wire cutters.

Here is the ends butted together and a piece of shrink wrap holds them together. There is a marine kind that has an adhesive inside that might work better but the normal type is OK as long as it's long enough. This piece is several inches long.

Here I've spray painted the assembled ring flat black using Rustoleum (since I used steel)

When dry it is inserted into the dew shield up near the end.

End result installed on the scope. I found a comment made on the SBIG Yahoo group site that the oblong shape can vignette an image and that's what prompted me to do this.