HELP! Dismantled my Panoptic!

[MortonH]

Was hoping to get better access to the bottom element to clean it but unscrewed the chrome part and all the lenses fell out!

No idea what order they go back in, and since most of them fit fairly snugly I'd rather only do it once.

Help!

[Kunama]

Hi Morton, I have some light reading for you, enjoy !!!
http://members.shaw.ca/quadibloc/science/opt04.htm


Mark (Darkplague) did the same some time ago and found a way to get them back together again, 'skies2clear' might have a contact for Mark.

[GrahamL]

heres the lens assembly for one afaik

http://www.astrosurf.com/re/eyepieces_data.jpg
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2877448/Main/2872994

I"ve only pulled a few eypeices apart , though one was a zeiss with a paint flek above the baffle , simple design but still a pricey piece to be messing with .

When you work out the internal lay out you may have to sit the lens stack on a secured small piece of pvc tube ,so as you can insert the assembly in the upper barrel in one go, flip it and the lower maybe will sit on the upper and allow you to screw the two back together ( I'm guessing here to btw ) that its two piece upper / lower,very carefully with no force , a couple of taps here and there and some thought will greatly help,its very important you don't cock a lens or spacer in the barrels as it may never come out .

Once all clean a dry ,I find the best place to do this is in a dry bathroom, as theres little dust and crap floating round in the air , and if you shut the door none can hear you cry if it all goes wrong ;)

good luck and take your time

[Kunama]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[MortonH]

Thanks, Graham. It's back together and once my Mak has cooled down I will hopefully confirm my initial impression that no real harm done. Must say, it's surprising how many elements are really just balancing on top of each other with small spacers in between. I had to pile them up and slide the outer sleeve down over them. It collapsed several times so probably chance of some fine scratches from that. All because there were a couple of dust particles that bugged me only when looking at the moon. Sigh...:screwy:

[Profiler]

Hi Morton

You could also try Bintel Sydney - I suspect one TV specialist/technician over there in particular would be able to put it back together but I suspect it would be done on the clear understanding that he couldn't warrant the fix - but it is an option for your consideration

[MortonH]

Thanks. Seems to be ok. Won't be doing that again!

[LewisM]

I had to dismantle a camera lens once... you think an EP without moving and electrical parts is difficult? ;)

[gary]

Hi Morton,

Al Nagler once told me that now and then a customer would hand him one of their
eyepieces and tell him that it didn't appear to be working properly. Al would take
a quick look through it and ask, "Have you taken it apart?", to which they would
sheepishly reply, "yes". Al went on to say that, of course, the customer would often put
an element back in back-to-front. :lol:

[MortonH]

Hi Gary,

I can easily believe that. Two of the lenses appear to be identical, and it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to fit them all together again!