Giving an old/tired eyepiece a new lease of life.

[Marmot]

I recently acquired an old eyepiece that the previous owner had no use for.

A revelation 32mm plossl. 

It was of an unknown age and had seen better days: The rubber eyecup was missing as was the central knurled plastic/rubber ring to assist handling and there were some spots on the lens, although I guessed (hoped) they were only dust.

 

I had a skywatcher ‘super 10’ that had come with my scope and that I didn’t use: I removed the rubber eyepiece and found it to be a perfect fit together with the plastic cap to cover the same. (I assume that many of them are fairly generic). 

 

I then then cut a piece of old cycle inner tube to give me a rubber ring of the correct size to sit in the slight depression left by the missing knurled ring. The inner tube rubber, being very elastic, gives a nice firm fit over the eyepiece holding itself in place. I also found that it was a perfect thickness, being virtually flush with the plastic of the eyepiece but giving a nice ‘grippy’ central band.

A light clean of the lens to remove dust and it came up perfect without any blemishes etc.

 

it looks like I have a new (upcycled) ‘finder piece’

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by Marmot
Add picture.

[Nightspore]

1 hour ago, Marmot said:

I recently acquired an old eyepiece that the previous owner had no use for.

A revelation 32mm plossl. 

It was of an unknown age and had seen better days: The rubber eyecup was missing as was the central knurled plastic/rubber ring to assist handling and there were some spots on the lens, although I guessed (hoped) they were only dust.

 

I had a skywatcher ‘super 10’ that had come with my scope and that I didn’t use: I removed the rubber eyepiece and found it to be a perfect fit together with the plastic cap to cover the same. (I assume that many of them are fairly generic). 

 

I then then cut a piece of old cycle inner tube to give me a rubber ring of the correct size to sit in the slight depression left by the missing knurled ring. The inner tube rubber, being very elastic, gives a nice firm fit over the eyepiece holding itself in place. I also found that it was a perfect thickness, being virtually flush with the plastic of the eyepiece but giving a nice ‘grippy’ central band.

A light clean of the lens to remove dust and it came up perfect without any blemishes etc.

 

it looks like I have a new (upcycled) ‘finder piece’

 

 

 

 

Cool. I'm pretty sure that's a GSO 32mm Plossl. They're pretty good. GSO eyecups are a softer rubber than usually used on Barsta and other Plossls, as a consequence they can easily come off and get lost. 

 

 

I've often cobbled together bits of borked eyepieces to make new ones. These 17mm BST Plossls above were used in my Williams Optics binoviewer and have Williams Optics barrels from an old bino pair of WO eyepieces that were no good.

 

 

 

The same barrels are now on a bino pair of 12mm GSO Plossls. The 15mm 'Altair' (GSO) SuperViews (centre pair) have eyecups from a pair of 25mm Sky-Watcher MA's. I didn't like the original SuperView eyecups as they didn't roll down easily.