Where to buy Acetone?

[tphilip]

The eyepieces are completely unusable as they are covered in mold. But they are pretty simple designs so disassembling them isn't so hard. I just soaked the lenses for 24 hours in a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide and the barrels/stops/retaining rings etc in something much stronger (sodium hypochlorite) to kill the mold, but I do have one lens I didn't soak yet so I'll try to take a picture of it and post it sometime.

Since the eyepieces are disassembled its simple to use acetone without any risk of damaging plastic or paint. And since they can't be used its either try and fix them or throw them away.

Anyway, unfortunately eyepieces need to be cleaned reasonably often as they attract oil from eyelashes inquisitive fingers, etc. not to mention that dirty eyepieces have a serious effect on image quality unlike dirty objectives which don't tend to degrade the image at all, and finger and eyelash oil will damage coatings if not cleaned off quickly. I normally use water and then alcohol to clean eyepieces which works pretty well. I saw a post by Roland Christen recommending spit!!!!

[tphilip]

Attached is a picture of a moldy lens. Looks nastier in the picture than by eye and its the worst of the bunch. Maybe beyond salvage - depends if the alkalines secreted by the mold have etched the glass or damaged the coatings.