Help! My 27mm Panoptic is self-destructing!

janoskiss (Steve H) · #1 30-09-2006, 06:08 PM

Under bright light I noticed lots of spots on the eye lens on my 27mm Panoptic. There are lots of them and look like little pinholes in the coating. The centre of the lens is free from the spots (say about 1/3 of the diameter), but the rest has lots. They will not clean off! I tried lens cleaning solution, Windex, breathing on the lens to fog it up, i.e., except for acetone, everything suggested on the Televue's article on EP cleaning: http://www.televue.com/engine/page.asp?ID=143 . So the spots definitely seem permanent.

You can see them in the attached photo showing reflection of halogen lamp in the lens.

Any idea what is happening to my beautiful eyepiece?

Why me?

It just isn't fair.

btw. I went to TeleVue's website and was surprised to find there is no customer support page or contact email/web-form. There is a US phone number but that's it.

xstream (John) · #2 30-09-2006, 06:18 PM

That is sad news Steve.
Although as strange as it may be, it could be quite normal.

Lester · #3 30-09-2006, 07:08 PM

Hmmmm! and I thought Panoptics were one of the best!

Hope you get to the bottom of it Steve.

In the meantime I will cross Panoptics off of my "to get eyepiece list."

janoskiss (Steve H) · #4 30-09-2006, 07:24 PM

FWIW, the lens coating on my 19mm is perfect. And I'm not just saying that because it's for sale.

I re-inspected it just to make sure.

ausastronomer (John Bambury) · #5 30-09-2006, 07:59 PM

Steve,

I think it could be MOULD which is a fungus growth.

You need to let your eyepieces dry properly after they have dewed up before you put them away. You should also keep some silica gel sachets in your eyepiece case.

The sad part is, that it is likely to be on the inside. I had that happen to some binoculars a few years ago. You are likely to need to get it serviced by Televue which won't be all that cheap.

Sorry to bring bad news

CS-John B

PS: It is a lot less likely to occur with a Pentax XW than it is with a Televue or any other eyepiece, because the Pentax XW's are waterproof and sealed against moisture

Darkplague · #6 30-09-2006, 08:31 PM

I had the same looking spots appear on my old Televue barlow. They were very stubborn to remove. I only used Isopropyl alcochol and cleaned them many times with a tissue. Really had to put a fair amount of pressure on the tissues to "scrub" the spots away.

Very nerve racking thing to do on an expensive piece

gaa_ian (Ian) · #7 01-10-2006, 12:18 AM

I had the same problem with my UO Konik 40 mm.
An Iso Wipe did the trick, not a blemish now

There is a lot to be said for drying eyepieces & scopes in the sun the day after observing.
Sun has the added benifit of killing off any mould spores that may be lingering there !

CoombellKid · #8 01-10-2006, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janoskiss

FWIW, the lens coating on my 19mm is perfect. And I'm not just saying that because it's for sale.

I re-inspected it just to make sure.

I had a similar thing happen to the coatings on my Meade #140 barlow.
It just started to look like pitting in the coating. Did the same as you
with no result. The pitting in the coating in my case was definitely
on the outside. And it started a few months after I got it. And looked
just like your picture (speckle look). It was kept in an ep box along with
my XW's, U/O HD's, filters + 2-3 lil bags of Silica (Must have IMO) and
given the same considerations in cleaning.

It was my favourite barlow

Sorry to hear and see of your problem, on a premium ep would be a lil
heart breaking. I hope someone can come up with a fix. Did you by it
new.

regards,CS

Rob

PS: Yes John B! apparently we can still observe out in a cat 4 storm
which is a lil amusing, I mean if ya bird watching might be a tad
hard keeping them in the FOV while they're blown along at 200+kms

But dang! I'll give it a try

gaa_ian (Ian) · #9 01-10-2006, 09:02 AM

Hey Steve, have you tried contacting one of the Australian distributors ?

janoskiss (Steve H) · #10 01-10-2006, 10:52 AM

Thanks for all the tips guys!

John, I always let the EPs dry out and/or warm up before putting caps back on and putting them away. I will take your advice on the silica gel, thank you.

What I have here does not appear to be mould. It appears to be on the surface of the eye lens only. All glass surfaces inside as well as the field lens look clear. It really looks like 100s of tiny pinholes in the top surface coating.

I have attached a couple of better photos.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaa_ian

Hey Steve, have you tried contacting one of the Australian distributors ?

No, not yet. I will try Bintel. Do you know of anyone else?

But maybe the eyepiece is a fake. Maybe it's not a TeleVue at all but one of Ken's TelePoos!

gaa_ian (Ian) · #11 01-10-2006, 11:33 AM

... Yes ...it's bound to be that DB fella flooding the market with cheap Telepoo's

I would certainly be talking to Bintel, they should at least be able to steer you in the right direction.

Dave47tuc (David) · #12 01-10-2006, 12:45 PM

Hi Steve,
I had a problem with a Tele Vue wide field once. Roger from Bintel helped me.
So my advice would be not to touch it. Take it to Roger and see what he can do.
Worst case it may have to be sent back to Tele Vue. But I would not take it apart and try to fix it yourself. Take it from me I did once.

mickoking · #13 01-10-2006, 01:07 PM

It looks like the top coating layer is delaminating. I have a similar problem with my OIII filter, but it doesn't seem to have affected its performance. If any off my eyepiece looked like that I would be contacting the manufactuer.

janoskiss (Steve H) · #14 01-10-2006, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave47tuc

I had a problem with a Tele Vue wide field once. Roger from Bintel helped me.

Oh, good. Thanks Dave. Off to Roger I'll go.

Tamtarn · #15 20-10-2006, 03:04 PM

Hi Steve

Was wondering what the final outcome was with the eye lens on your 27mm Pano

David

janoskiss (Steve H) · #16 20-10-2006, 05:47 PM

David, I still haven't gotten around to going to Bintel. Not likely to either till late next week. Want to pick up a solar filter for the Mak while I'm there too.

janoskiss (Steve H) · #17 28-12-2006, 11:49 PM

For the record:

Spoke to Bintel and they spoke to TeleVue. TeleVue recommended cleaning with acetone. This I did just today, but made no difference. Well, it's nice and clean, but the spots are still there.

TeleVue will not do anything under warranty as this is a second hand EP. If you bought new from a local authorised dealer you'd get five years warranty. For just a clean, it would cost me $100, including shipping to the US and back. More extensive repairs would cost more $$. So it's not worth getting it fixed esp. considering the EP is functionally indistinguishable from a new one.

As I was lucky enough to grab a 20mm T5 for a bargain price recently, I am about to put this Pano up for sale. My next EP around this FL will probably be a 30mm Pentax XW (which btw does come with limited lifetime warranty). But not for a long while.