Possible Fungus in Refractor?

[paulgrover68]

When I broke down my visual rig I noticed some worrying snowflake shaped smudges on the inside of my old EvoStar 120.  It's about 12 years old and spent a lot of its life in a shed.

Both my main scopes have desicant caps, and this is due one next month.

I decided to see of I could do anything. I don't know if I've handle this correctly - I followed some advice I found on the web...

 

I removed the lens cell, it's built into the metal hood.  There was a lot of dust inside - which surprised me. 

Once I'd given it a blow down with the bulb blower I gave it a splash of Baader optical wonder. It cut through the smudges and improved the visual look of the lens.  Inspecting under the light and it now looks clearer.

 

This surprised me as I thought fungus destroyed the coatings and was more an issue between elements.  All is looking pretty good, so I guess my risky idea worked.  The are some smears on the outside I need to clean off. Of course it might not have been fungus after all and could have just been muck of some sort!

I've popped the cloth in the wash and kept it away from other lenses.  Tomorrow I'll pop the scope outside and let it get some heat and UV.

[Marmot]

Fingers crossed that you have resolved the issue. If it was fungus, at least it sounds like you got to it early enough to sort it.

[paulgrover68]

Fingers crossed - while it's only a cheap achromat, I like using it for double stars and looking at the moon.  Once both rigs are up and running for imaging I plan to pop it on a manual alt-az mout, just for the fun of star hopping.

[Marmot]

9 minutes ago, paulgrover68 said:

Fingers crossed - while it's only a cheap achromat, I like using it for double stars and looking at the moon.  Once both rigs are up and running for imaging I plan to pop it on a manual alt-az mout, just for the fun of star hopping.

Don’t say ‘it’s only a cheap achromat’ ......... that’s all I’ve got!!!😀

i know what you mean though as it’s definitely cheap compared to your other kit and it’s good that you are still getting some fun out of it.

[paulgrover68]

That's a good point.  That scope has much more value to me than perhaps it's used value. Without it I wouldn't understand my current kit (which I'm still learning!).I think part of its charm is how simple and effective it is.  The moon with 10mm eyepiece remains a stunning sight through it.