not sure if this will be good to have here but I came across these 3 and 4 inch domes that are part of a lens assembly so you should have no problem seeing what is under them at all. though they do have a slight fisheye effect.

http://www.borgsteamfactory.com/page3.html

the domes are about half way down.

there are clear, red, and green

the red is just that but the green seems to be in two variations.

now for the "where can I find some of these"


the beauty of it is there are going to be a ton of these thrown away so you should be able to use a screw driver to salvage a lot of them.

I found mine at a video shop that sells video and audio equipment and does installs for people. the lenses you see are from old rear projection TVs which are becoming more and more available near dumpsters being tossed, thanks to LCD and plasma TV's coming down in price and the fact that everything is going both digital and HD. The lens you are looking at though is attached to the CRT in most cases so you have to pry them off the unit (does not take much work though) and then wrap them up in something to keep the oil that is going to be on them from getting everywhere. I used packing supplies from all sorts of stuff to do this and then put them in a small box that was probably for a speaker. once home get out some decent soap like ivory and suds them up with hot water and soap and wash the oil off of them.

oh to see the domes on my page there you can scroll down and just under the pictures of them all is a couple of VIDEOS too.

hope this helps you guys out.

Awesome!  Thanks for the tip.  I really like that it's a reclaimed part from something this is being recycled.  Love your website by the way.  Rad goggles!

thank you on both points. I am working on a sort of spacey looking wall formation using faux metal painted work over styrofoam packing sections. very "space 1999"

I just happened to run across these other gems while out scavenging for the foam and decided to share. I found at this place a ton of circuit boards too as they apparently did a lot of repair work on high end electronics for video and audio. so if you find one of these places keep your eyes peeled should you need something like that.

I salvaged a number of the guns from the CRTs too as I am going to see if I can make a sort of tesla gun type raygun prop.

Another good place for reasonably priced domes is EMA Model Supplies Ltd based in Shepperton UK. They came in very handy when I restored the missing panel on my exhibition console. Here is the link:
http://www.ema-models.co.uk/

Peter