20mm Williams Optics SWAN Disassembly

[Mak the Night]

Below: 66°, 5 element 20mm William Optics SWAN eyepiece.

My 20mm SWAN was supplied as part of a bino pair with my WO binoviewer. 

I’m pretty sure these are usually marketed as 72° AFOV but the WO bino can only effectively use 66°.

Elements with eye lens at top.

These seem to be two singlets and a triplet.

Closer views of the triplet.

[mikeDnight]

You're unnerving me Mak! I can imagine you trying to put these eyepieces back together in a hurry on a clear night like tonight and getting some pretty interesting images. ?

[Mak the Night]

Just now, mikeDnight said:

You're unnerving me Mak! I can imagine you trying to put these eyepieces back together in a hurry on a clear night like tonight and getting some pretty interesting images. ?

These are quite difficult to put back together for some reason. To be honest, I've never rated the 20mm SWAN's and mine were dirty when I received them and I couldn't clean the debris off the lens surfaces. So I've never really used them much. It appeared to be some form of rubber deposit, possibly from the material holding the lens element. I've seen this kind of contamination before, in fact, it mysteriously appeared on two 6mm Baader BCO's I had once. 

As the SWAN's aren't being used I decided to sacrifice one of them for optical science lol.