My Orion ED102 got rained on and need some advice.

[White Rabbit]

Hi guys.

After about 2 months of no observing due to weather/time I set up my gear on Saturday nigh. The sky looked a little patch but noting serious, good enough to get some drifting done and some find tuning should the weather get bette. Anyway after setting up I went inside for about an hour and there must have been a short but heavy downpour. I had the cap off my refractor and rain had pooled on the lense. Now I seem to have water trapped between two lenses.

If I unscrew the element to clean it and I put it back together myself am I gong to mess up the alignemt of the two lenses, or is that not really an issue, cant see why it wouldnt be?

Any advice, links on cleaning a refractor?

Thanks

[White Rabbit]

Bugger, I just found this.

1. Refractor. Most refractor telescopes have multiple objective lens systems that are permanently mounted in cells or are permanently attached to the optical tube assembly (OTA). Because of their closed optical tube design, only the exposed surface of these optics will ever need to be cleaned. Again, most refractors do not have user "collimatable" optics and must be returned to the factory for optical alignment. Never disassemble a lens cell, under any circumstance, while many are air-spaced, others are vacuum sealed or filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen or even oil!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

If you're going to have to send it in to be recollimated, why not have a go doing it yourself anyway. Just mark which screw came from where so it goes back together the same way.

[White Rabbit]

Thanks Jeanette.

I might just do that.

Sandy

[DavidU (Dave)]

Onother thing, when you get the lens out try to keep both lenses together as they are,they should have a set of arrows or a line drawn on the side of both lenses. This mark is very important as they are put together with an index mark and are tested as such. With both lenses aligned to each other they provide the best correction.
Also make sure the little shims on the edge between the lens is kept in place.These shims are a carefully measured item to provide a particular air gap between the lenses, this helps minimise spherical aberration.
If you keep everything in exactly the same place and orientation you should not have a problem.

[White Rabbit]

Originally Posted by DavidU

Onother thing, when you get the lens out try to keep both lenses together as they are,they should have a set of arrows or a line drawn on the side of both lenses. This mark is very important as they are put together with an index mark and are tested as such. With both lenses aligned to each other they provide the best correction.
Also make sure the little shims on the edge between the lens is kept in place.These shims are a carefully measured item to provide a particular air gap between the lenses, this helps minimise spherical aberration.
If you keep everything in exactly the same place and orientation you should not have a problem.

Well, that sounds easy enough lolso what your saying is, is that if i remove the lenses but dont actually move them, plus keep the markers perfectly aligned as they are, and be ever so careful not to move the shims because the space between them is uber important, I should be fine. Right, got it i think.

I think I'll just rob a bank and buy a new one, sounds easier to me .

[DavidU (Dave)]

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

Well, that sounds easy enough lolso what your saying is, is that if i remove the lenses but dont actually move them, plus keep the markers perfectly aligned as they are, and be ever so careful not to move the shims because the space between them is uber important, I should be fine. Right, got it i think.

I think I'll just rob a bank and buy a new one, sounds easier to me .

Take it apart by all means (ya have to clean it after all)just make sure it goes together with the index marks back where they were.

[AlexN]

Mate that sounds depressing to say the least..

I wouldnt go pulling it apart if I were you, but thats me.. If you're the adventure seeking type, then knock yourself out! You will want to get something done about it quick though, moisture in there will quickly turn into mould, which can eat away at the optics and the coatings.. This will turn what is essentially a "disassemble, dry, reassemble" process into something much more time consuming and costly..

Call bintel, they may be able to sort it out..

[DavidU (Dave)]

Here

[White Rabbit]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll call bintel in themorning and see what they say.

David,thanks for picture. I hope you realise that I was joking around with my last reply...


Thanks again

Sandy.