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

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

Having problems getting mail into the list... let us see if this
works... I attempted to post this last week.

Dominic

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005, Dominic-Luc Webb wrote:

>
> > > 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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