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Phillip Creed
Idiot Seeking Village
Reged: 07/25/06
Posts: 1032
Loc: NE Ohio
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I had a humorous episode a few weeks' back with my Celestron 10x50s.
It all started in late October, when my car was in the shop. I had to use my wife's car to travel to Salt Fork State Park (near Cambridge, OH) to glimpse Comet SWAN during its outburst.
I simply left both my 25x100 Obies and my Celestron Pro 10x50s in the trunk, the latter with its original soft carrying case.
To make a long story short, my wife forgot that the right side of her trunk had a small leak. And guess where that rainwater got? It soaked the case of the 10x50s. Sure enough, when I held them up to the light, everything inside was fogged. (My Obies were in the case, and they were fine)
Well, what to do? I still feel these are a fine set of binoculars, but with all the imported Chinese binoculars around, let's face it--a set of quality 10x50s is much cheaper these days. Figuring that since they're not expensive, nor waterproof, I unscrewed the barrels and held the prism housing over a heating vent. Hey, if water got in, I figured it could get out, right?
Sure enough, the objectives cleared up right away, but the prisms took nearly 15 minutes to completely dry out. I didn't have any way of sending compressed air through the housing to get any dust that might come out of the heating vent into the binocular, though. I've checked for dust and haven't seen anything, but I'm guessing there are better ways to have tackled the problem.
Any thoughts on better ways to approach something like this in the future?
Clear Skies,
Phil
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"Why suffer from insanity when you can revel in it?"
Wilderness Center Astronomy Club member since 1995
ICQ Comet Observer Code: CRE01
*****
16" f/4.5 Truss Dobsonian (FOR SALE!!)
Orion 120mm ST Refractor
23mm Axiom LX
13mm Nagler Type 6
9mm Nagler Type 6
1.75X Siebert Barlow
*****
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Rich N
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/22/04
Posts: 5312
Loc: San Francisco Bay Area, Calif...
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Glad it worked.
In the future... buy a Zeiss 10x56 FL. 
Rich
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edwincjones
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/10/04
Posts: 4419
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I would not do this to a Zeiss
(probably would not have too)
edj
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n w arkansas
Binocular, Solar, General Amateur Astronomy
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NairB
member
Reged: 11/11/06
Posts: 49
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Depending on how wet they got inside, instead of disassembly, maybe you could have sat the bino's on a warm surface overnight to dry them out.
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Strathspey 15x70's FMC - Amazing cheap bino for the price. Bright, natural color/contrast, sharp, and well collimated. Best for Daytime viewing
Celestron Skymaster 15x70's MC - Field of view has a Smoky/Brown tint making them less bright during daytime viewing BUT this doesn't seem to affect night time viewing...Testing against the Strath's continues!!!
Oberwerk Lightweight 20x80mm FMC - Arrived - Had to collimate them. Undergoing tests.
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BillC
on a new path
Reged: 06/04/04
Posts: 2109
Loc: Washington, USA
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>>>Any thoughts on better ways to approach something like this in the future?<<<
You did pretty good. Always be sure that the lenses are returned to the side from which they came, and mark them so that they can be turned to the same orientation. There is some excentticity in the lens, the housing and the threads.
Cheers,
Bill
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William J. Cook, Chief Opticalman, USNR-Ret.
Founding Editor, Amateur Telescope Making Journal
20-year vet. of Captain's Nautical Supplies, Optics Dept. Mgr.
Optics Machanic, WG11-3306, Ft. Lewis, Tacoma,WA
Yata, Yata, Yata . . .
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Phillip Creed
Idiot Seeking Village
Reged: 07/25/06
Posts: 1032
Loc: NE Ohio
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I put my 10x50s back together, and from what I can tell, they look OK in terms of optical clarity and alignment. It was actually pretty neat to see the inner workings of a set of binoculars!
That being said, my somewhat cavalier approach was strongly influenced by the fact they were Celestron 10x50s. If these had been the 25x100 Obies, I'd be sweating bullets.
Clear Skies,
Phil
--------------------
"Why suffer from insanity when you can revel in it?"
Wilderness Center Astronomy Club member since 1995
ICQ Comet Observer Code: CRE01
*****
16" f/4.5 Truss Dobsonian (FOR SALE!!)
Orion 120mm ST Refractor
23mm Axiom LX
13mm Nagler Type 6
9mm Nagler Type 6
1.75X Siebert Barlow
*****
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Dave M
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/04
Posts: 4519
Loc: N.E Ohio
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Quote:
Any thoughts on better ways to approach something like this in the future?
Clear Skies,
Phil
Fix leak in trunk 
Or
Set oven to 100 deg, turn off oven, place Celestrons on
ungreased cookie sheet and let sit over night......
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Dave
Meade 16" F4.5 EQ Starfinder
Meade 10" SCT / Losmandy G11
Tak FSQ106ED
Canon 20D
SBig ST-4
http://www.spacew.com/gallery/DM
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Phillip Creed
Idiot Seeking Village
Reged: 07/25/06
Posts: 1032
Loc: NE Ohio
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Dave,
Knowing my luck the oven would have gone past 200 and started to soften whatever the housing was, unless it was rubber (key point--you can heat rubber to a great extent, but if the "rubber" is, in fact, flexible vinyl, it'll look...grotesque)
I had given a hairdryer a thought, but getting moisture out of the prism housing is a VERRRRY slow process without disassembly. And since I have the attention span of a gnat, I figured I'd just put them on a heating vent an let 'em go for some time.
Clear Skies,
Phil
P.S. Any interest in Calhoun on Friday/Saturday night?
--------------------
"Why suffer from insanity when you can revel in it?"
Wilderness Center Astronomy Club member since 1995
ICQ Comet Observer Code: CRE01
*****
16" f/4.5 Truss Dobsonian (FOR SALE!!)
Orion 120mm ST Refractor
23mm Axiom LX
13mm Nagler Type 6
9mm Nagler Type 6
1.75X Siebert Barlow
*****
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