Last week, I visited Jim Corbett National park. I remembered we had an old pair of binoculars somewhere around the house. My uncle must have bought it sometime in the 80s. Now, I'm no avid birder but Corbett houses six hundred species of birds, so I decided to carry the binoculars and try to learn more about them. The birds and the pair of binoculars...
While in the safari, I used someone else's newer binocs one time and realised that mine weren't as great to look through with. A little examination made me see the insane amount of fungus collected on the glass inside that wasn't accessible enough to be cleaned unless dismantled. I was told that the glass is actually a sets of prisms inside and it would be better to invest in a new pair of binocs rather than get those cleaned.
But I had other plans... to open and clean the whole thing myself.
I'm rather glad I didn't have access to a set of little screw drivers during the holiday.
I came back to Pune and a few days later, found the lens cleaning fluid I used to clean my camera lenses with. Out came my little red screw driver set and I carefully started opening the beautiful old gadget which was made in Hong Kong.
I removed all the parts one by one and reached the sets of prisms. Cleaning them and placing them back without getting my fingerprints all over them was tricky, but I managed.
An hour later, I reassembled the whole contraption and looked through it to see the super clear super moon. I had successfully cleaned, from within - my macho, Russian looking retro pair of Prinz binoculars. They are now- as good as new!
Meghana is happy.
