Have i broken my EP?

[DrNeb]

Elloo all,

Quick question:

has the seeing been exceptionally bad? so bad that i'm struggling to focus with the stock 10mm eye piece on a full moon?

or! (please don't laugh at me too hard for this)

instead of using a traditional air squeeze pump designed for eye pieces to help clear dust and specs from the eyepiece, i used a baloon pump! could this have unbalanced the lens of the eye piece by being too powerful?

it sounds daft doesn't it? but the last three nights i have found focusing to be a real problem on even simple targets.

either the seeing is bad, my eye pieces are broken or my eyes have gotten significantly worse in the last week.

Oh, collimation is spot on so it cannot be that.

Ideas welcome! not too worried about the EP's as they're the stock cheapie ones.

[John]

The lenses in eyepieces are generally very firmly held in place by retaining rings so I doubt you have displaced anything. If you hold the eyepiece up to your eye and look at a bright surface through it you should see if there are any deposits on the lenses.

I assume you did not actually touch the lenses with the pump ?

Even if the seeing was poor I think you should get a decently sharp image at 120x.

[pvaz]

I doubt its ruined. You should try it a few more times before reaching a conclusion. It might be seeing conditions or air currents in the OTA.

Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

[yeti monster]

Possible contamination from the 'balloon pump'? I've dropped an EP and not had any problem, so I doubt a waft of air is likely to do any harm.

[DrNeb]

Thanks Chaps!

i didnt make any contact with the pump.

will try it again a few more times.

[Peter Drew]

You could have forced in some fresh air which might have caused some misting. This can take some time to clear.

[Slangers]

I think even cheap EPs are fairly robust. I have a bad habit of putting them in my coat pocket and then forgetting they're there for days on end. They seem to survive OK.

[DrNeb]

lol! well maybe i should get my eyes tested...

been putting it off for some time now anyway .

bring on pay day so i can get my next eye piece!

Cheers all