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I wonder whether a piece of "Vaseline glass" (an antique glass tinted yellow-green with uranium oxide) would work. It should be far enough from your eye to reduce the beta-particle count, I don't know how hot it is in gamma

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Biggest danger from uranium oxide is alpha, however you really don't want alpha particles hitting your eye. If placed on the side away from your eye, all the alpha particles should be blocked. A piece of paper can block alpha.

Beta, on the other hand, can travel several feet in air and would likely go right through your eyepiece. Not much beta from the uranium glass (Uranium is primarily an alpha emitter) but any beta in your eye is a big no-no. It causes cataracts and potentially other nasties.

I would suggest a better option would be to spray a thin coating of "flourescene" dye (its green) on the back of a small piece of optical quality glass.

-Caver

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