Re: [ATM] Infection &Telescope Focusing at Public Events

[Dominic-Luc Webb <dlwebb@canit.se>]

> > What steps do ATMers take to prevent cross-infection at the eyepiece
> during
> > star parties?
>
> Perhaps using a long eye relief eyepiece and a rubber eyecup with
> antibacterial silver ion surface such as is used in some medical tubing see:
>
> http://www.eldonjames.com/html/AG_HowItWorks.html


I got into this a bit late, as usual. May I ask if there have been
specific infections that have been transmitted at public events that
could be traced to eyepieces as opposed to close contact that would
permit transfer of airborn pathogens? What kind of pathogens?

The most obvious thing that comes to mind is conjunctivitis. This is
often viral, rather than bacterial, and when it is bacterial, it will
be small flakes of skin, etc that do not come in contact with the
eyepiece directly. Silver surfaced materials won't help much. The typical
mode of eye infection is via rubbing the eyes with infected hands. I would
expect at a public event there could be a lot of kids touching and grabbing
and wiping everything in sight with dirty claws. Washing their dirty
little grabbers with soap helps bunches!

Of course, if you are paranoid about disease (I never worry about this
myself), you can always use a CCD camera and display the images on a
computer screen. This has the added benefit of sparing the older people
back pains and even injuries affecting mobility (I actually do worry about
this). In our present electronic gizmo age, eyepieces seem a tad declasse.

Dominic-Luc Webb

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