What does this do?

[rob7]

I've had a couple of Meade series 5000 2" 32 + 40mm eps for a couple of weeks or so, but today by accident I noticed the the barrel twists up and down the nosepiece on both eps. The weather is dire where I'm located and I'm tenderly nursing a hangover at the moment so I can't 'practically' get my scope out to see if it changes anything optically when you twist the barrel. Is it something to do with the focal length? If anybody has any ideas or experience with these eps I'm really curious to know..

Regards, Rob.

[Jamie]

Hi Rob

What it does is keep your eyelashes away from the glass part of the eyepiece.

Eyelashes are full of grease and if they touch an eyepiece lens it can and will mark them...

[rob7]

Thanks Jamie for the expanation. I aslo thought it might be something to do with controlling the distance between my eye and the lens, but they twist up 1", which seemed overkill for that benefit? You'd need 'transvestite fake eyelashes' to be able to touch the lens on full extention of the barrel..I did hope it would be something cleverer than eye relief. Still, I'm a newbie and know not a lot!! Cheers.