More microscope eyepieces reworked!

[Chaz2b]

After the free Mentor eyepieces were a success, I indulged myself to two Zeiss pl 10x/20 microscope eyepieces for £24.95 the pair.

There are ridges on the sides of the part which insert into the holders and after measuring the diameter in between , I sanded down these ridges so they can fit into metal nose pieces taken from cheap eyepieces.

Offering the Zeiss to my TV Ranger I was amazed at how good they are! I mean stonkely good!

The white caps are milk bottle tops which also fit snuggly. Two more high quality eyepieces for my binoviwer, excellent!

chaz

Edited June 12 by Chaz2b

[Alan White]

Nice find Chaz.
Pleased for you in your quest.

[Chaz2b]

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

Nice find Chaz.
Pleased for you in your quest.

Thanks Alan, always on the lookout for any optics at work, mostly old binos but the odd item does appear.

What I would like to find is a nose piece that fits a 40mm internal thread! Then I wouldn’t have to sand the ridges down.

Edited June 12 by Chaz2b

[Highburymark]

Very nice Chaz. Great bargain, and that legendary Zeiss quality. 

[Highburymark]

PS - if you get hold of some old Kodak film cases and cut off the base, the resulting tube should fit on these 30mm barrels perfectly, and then it will act exactly like a 1.25” eyepiece. There is one caveat however - they don’t work with Baader clicklocks. I have clicklocks on all my scopes, and the Kodak adapters are marginally too wide. For all other eyepiece holders, they should work well. 
As a result, I just use paper and tape to turn my microscope eyepieces into astronomy-friendly oculars - example Leicas pictured. 

[Chaz2b]

Nice tip, I’ll see if I can find some film cans.

chaz

[Coco]

On 13/06/2024 at 17:01, Chaz2b said:

Nice tip, I’ll see if I can find some film cans.

chaz

I've got some, I use them for desiccant packs in scopes, I'll px you against your FS78  😁

[Chaz2b]

20 hours ago, Coco said:

I've got some, I use them for desiccant packs in scopes, I'll px you against your FS78  😁

Haha! Nice one centurion. I’m the only one who has oval cans!

chaz

[LondonNeil]

Interesting.  Why would an affordable microscope ep provide better quality than a similar priced telescope ep?  Are microscopes more widely used?

[Chaz2b]

Then take the eyepieces from binoculars, same result, excellent viewing! I have bought half a dozen binoculars, taken them apart and reworked them.

I have to thank Red Henry on Facebook for showing how it’s done, he’s been doing it for years and generous enough to pass on his work freely to those who can’t afford the more quality eyepieces.

I suspect that microscopes are built to a quality required for a serious use, therefore the eyepieces employed need to be a premium quality. 
Older eyepieces are almost discarded if they have gone digital, such as a major hospital near me, threw out Olympus microscopes! as they had gone digital.

Those ep’s were specific to their task, so I couldn’t use them, whereas the ones I have are more used in split beam type microscopes and have a wider fov.

The mentor I have for example, is used in pcb/ motherboard repairs so the ep’s are not used down to the near atom size subjects.

nevertheless the quality remains high!

chaz

[Highburymark]

2 hours ago, LondonNeil said:

Interesting.  Why would an affordable microscope ep provide better quality than a similar priced telescope ep?  Are microscopes more widely used?

They weren’t affordable when new. I think Chaz’s eyepieces were the equivalent of around £700 new. Some amazing bargains can be picked up secondhand. The Leicas (HC Plan S 10x/25) in the pic were around double that - my best eyepieces. The Zeiss OPMIs weren’t far behind. These are made to a much higher standard than most astronomy eyepieces. Check out the long microscope eyepiece threads on CN started by Denis to see why they are so highly prized by a stargazers. 

[Emperor!Takahashi!]

1 hour ago, Highburymark said:

They weren’t affordable when new. I think Chaz’s eyepieces were the equivalent of around £700 new. Some amazing bargains can be picked up secondhand. The Leicas (HC Plan S 10x/25) in the pic were around double that - my best eyepieces. The Zeiss OPMIs weren’t far behind. These are made to a much higher standard than most astronomy eyepieces. Check out the long microscope eyepiece threads on CN started by Denis to see why they are so highly prized by a stargazers. 

Very nice! Are all of those 25mm? Most of the information I've found is on 25mm pairs, and I've curious which longer and shorter FL microscope eyepieces are worth trying.

[Highburymark]

1 hour ago, Emperor!Takahashi! said:

Very nice! Are all of those 25mm? Most of the information I've found is on 25mm pairs, and I've curious which longer and shorter FL microscope eyepieces are worth trying.

Yes they are. Anything marked with 10x is effectively a 25mm eyepiece. It is possible to find shorter focal lengths, but they are rarer and often more expensive. 
But they all barlow really well with a binoviewer. I use the 25mm pairs for very high magnification solar and planetary observing, typically using 4x Powermate, GPCs and decent barlows.

Chaz’s eyepieces were a real bargain. Expect to pay upwards from about £150 a pair for Zeiss and Leica EPs secondhand. You have to do a bit of research first, and avoid anything made in China or the Far East - there are lots of substandard versions and copies out there. German made Zeiss and Leicas are particularly highly rated. You also have to adapt them for 1.25”.    

I’m no expert - I’ve only tried the three pairs that I own, but they are all stunning - tiny, tiny stars, and better transmission and contrast than even the best Japanese orthos. Some have compared them favourably even with ZAOs. There are lengthy review threads on CN, and a couple on SGL (see the Zeiss OPMI one from around 2015, I think it was written by ‘Stratis’).

[LondonNeil]

6 hours ago, Highburymark said:

They weren’t affordable when new. I think Chaz’s eyepieces were the equivalent of around £700 new. Some amazing bargains can be picked up secondhand. The Leicas (HC Plan S 10x/25) in the pic were around double that - my best eyepieces. The Zeiss OPMIs weren’t far behind. These are made to a much higher standard than most astronomy eyepieces. Check out the long microscope eyepiece threads on CN started by Denis to see why they are so highly prized by a stargazers. 

Oh wow,  they must be good optics!  Since they had been picked up for £24.95 I had no idea!