Okay, I got my Vixen Ascot ZR 8x42 binoculars earlier this (well, Friday's) afternoon. Got it from Jim (McGill) at $170 student offer for the binoculars only at Bedok area (McGill's warehouse is there). Other than that, he also sold me
"The Night Sky" Planisphere (Cardboard Edition) for $5 when it's usually
retailing at McGill for $18. After that I proceed to get my lenspen and blower from MS Color at AMK Hub (took MRT there, haha). Lenspen costed me $12, the blower was an A*F Switzerland one, blue in color for $18. A total of $30 spent on that.
After that, just a few hours ago, I went downstairs to take a look at the stars. Being a noob, I couldn't identify anything and the light pollution around my area was also in the way. But, I did saw Jupiter (recognize it because it was the brightest and most noticable in the skies already, and I saw it before on the 5th July NUS ob session). I did managed to find some stars that looked like Vega, Altair and Deneb (thanks to the Planisphere), although I wasn't able to identify them.
Well, lol after telling you all these crap, I'm going to finally tell you how I'll store my binoculars. If you're going to use your binoculars every now and then, you don't have to keep placing it in your drybox. Fungus need time and air to grow, as long as you keep using it, fungus won't have a chance to grow at all. But if you're not going to use it for weeks, it's better to store in your drybox.
As for the cleaning part, you don't have to keep dusting it off because dust is everywhere. An advice from Jim earlier today was that clean it only when you notice your view is blurred due to dirt. As for normal maintenance and care, if you bring it to the beach for stargazing, make sure you blow off all the sand that got into your lens before you use a cloth or lenspen to clean it. Cause if you don't use a blower to blow off all the sand, you could risk scratching your lenses while wiping it with a cloth or lenspen cause the sand is a hard particle. Basically that's about it, how often to clean and wipe is up to you. For me, I'm quite a fussy person, so I think I'll take my binoculars out once in while, check and check for fingerprints/smudges and clean it off then cap it and keep.
Alright, after my long-winded post, I hope I've helped. (: