Serial number on Kowa 25-60x...? (1 Viewer)

I have had two Kowa 883 coupled with the 25-60x zoom at home for some days. I have tried them side by side and after some time I prefered one of the bodies. I have then changed the eyepieces on that single body..back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and so on. Now I'm not 100% sure which eyepiece came with which body.. :-/

I'm thinking of sending back one of the scopes (with one of the eyepieces of course) and keep the other package. But as I said..I am not 100 % sure I am sending back the right eyepiece with the body! The scopes came from different dealers.

I can not see any serial numbers on the eyepieces, and I can not tell which is which just looking thrue the eyepieces. Is it possible for Kowa company to see that? I am just thinkin if I buy one of the packages and it is the "wrong" eyepiece...maybe there will be some trouble with guarantees..?!

I also wonder if the dealer can see if it is the right or wrong eyepiece they get sent back? If not..then it is of no meaning that I mention to them that it may be the wrong eyepiece I am sending back. But on the other hand, maybe it's best to mention it after all. It feels better to do so, I think...

50% chance it would be the correct eyepiece.

If the coatings differ, maybe select the best matches.

It has been warm in Sweden lately.

Had a similar experience; i needed to send my EP back to Kowa after it exhibited the dreaded paint specks inside. I wanted this one cleaned, not a replacement, where it might happen again, so tried to make a note of the serial number. Like you, i couldn't find one. I can't believe there isn't some i.d. somewhere though....

Binastro said:

50% chance it would be the correct eyepiece.

If the coatings differ, maybe select the best matches.

It has been warm in Sweden lately.

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One of them definitely seems to be sharper than the other one, but that "the other one" seems to be a little bit brighter and have a bigger sweetspot (feels easier to look thru). Brighter and bigger sweetspot...imagination?

paddy7 said:

I can't believe there isn't some i.d. somewhere though....

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I agree with you - there have to be a way for Kowa to see exactly which eyepiece it is. Strange though that there isn´t some code or serial number somewhere on the eyepiece. I can not see a code or serial number on the box either (like there is on the box for the body).

Astro eyepieces don't usually have serial numbers although I have found pencil markings when dismantling some.
Maybe some modern ones do?

Some optics also have pencil arrows indicating the best rotational position for the elements. This is usually on uncemented objectives.

My PST telescope has a serial number but many astro scopes don't have serial numbers.

With Russian binoculars it is mix and match. The two barrels often have different coating colours.

Sometimes binoculars have markings inside the optics on the tube walls.

If both eyepieces are reasonably good, I wouldn't worry which one is returned. You tried your best, but had to be pragmatic.

Binastro said:

If both eyepieces are reasonably good, I wouldn't worry which one is returned. You tried your best, but had to be pragmatic.

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Both eyepieces was reasonably good, but one of them were still noticeably sharper. I chose the sharpest one in the end, but that choice was not entirely obvious. Actually..I chose the less sharp eyepiece first because I thought it felt a little bit brighter, easier to get flying birds resonably sharp at 60x mag, more "airy" feel to it.

I do not know if I chose the right eyepiece when I chose the sharpest one, but now I know that I have a pretty sharp Kowa 883 at least. I know that the eyepiece I chose was the sharpest of the two, but the other things I felt when using the less sharp eyepiece could just have been imagination. I will never know, because it has been send back to the dealer today.