You know how it is, flushed with new scope enthusiasm - you jump out at any opportunity to set up and have a skoot around the sky.

So it was with me in the first few days after the brown box arrived - not that I have lost the bug yet of course.

I was being assiduous in handling the little baby but as is the way with things still fumbling about occasionally dropping stuff or picking things up and ever so slightly getting my big paw prints everywhere.

Well I had been reading as it happens - about cleaning the optics that is - and without variation the advice was the same - don't - you won't need to for ages if ever it seems. And the little bits of dust on the objective dont make any difference to the image you see... yada yada yada

Now this was, I considered, sage advice that I had every intention of following...

And, by the way, if you ever do have to clean the optics - do it gently with a camel haired brush and air to get the dust off - don't scrub the darned thing with cillit bang or some such.

Of course I would never consider ignoring such advice, but...

One night perhaps delivery day + say 3 or 4 as I was dutifully returning the cap after allowing the dew, such that it was, to evaporate I did notice an unexpected quantity of fibres and dust polluting my precious objective lens. The cheek of it!

Not wanting to have the pristine instrument clarty within mere hours of opening the box I resolved to very gingerly and with due regard to all the sage advice - puff off the offending detritus. Naturally I am a sufficiently experienced astronomer after a couple of days to know not to blow on the darn thing so of course I didn't you'll be pleased to know!

No instead, thinking quickly I remembered having some Powerclean air in a can - you know the sort of thing you use for clearing the loose crud from your computer keyboard - so carefully with the end of the tube a respectable distance from the end of my beloved ETX I pressed the button and skoosh the dust was begone! Apart, that is, for a few stubborn bits which I soon dispatched with the powerclean.

But then to my chagrin I realised as the last skoosh of the compressed air left the can that a lovely fan shaped oval of freezing propellant spread itself over the edge of the lens - erk! :eek: It'll evaporate I said to myself dont panic its just the cold...

Somehow the likelyhood of it evaporating seemed to dwindle after a few minutes and I was left staring at the residue clinging to the once perfect optical surface. Oh well, like the dust it probably wont have any noticable effect on the optical performance of the telescope - it will just annoy me every time I remove or replace the endcap. :cool:

And it did - annoy me, immensely moreover I got to thinking - I had no idea of the nature of the propellant in the can - it might not effect the image but what if it erodes the optical coating on the objective over time and then subtly effects the performance. Nope I couldnt stand it - I had to do the very thing that the advice counsels against - the lens would have to be cleaned.

I had read about this in the manual of course - a gentle swab with plain soft facial tissues and a solution of 3 parts distilled water to 1 part isopropyl alchohol. But I had also read some of the posts here and it seems that both distilled water and IPA are tricky to get hold of here in old blighty.

So off I trundled to the local chemist shop manual in hand in case I had to convince them I wasnt a terrorist trying to buy up a supply of nasty chemicals for nefarious purposes. And blank! The first chemist couldnt help - didn't have IPA or distilled water - the latter being so dangerous it has to be ordered specially or some such and anyway it was 'sterile' water however that was produced. Well not an auspicious start - I really did expect to rollup to the pharmacy counter and walk away with the goods after perhaps no more than a cursory explanation of what I wanted the stuff for.

The second one was even worse, the spotty young attendant seeming completley flummoxed by the concept of someone wanting to purchase anything other than pain-killers, smelly toiletries or ladies hygene products. The third chemists seemed more useful - at least they seemed to understand the request and even asked what I wanted the IPA for - but they had changed their wholesale suppliers recently and after dutifully interrogating the computer announced they could not source the IPA for me. Unfortunately they drew a blank at the water too - the 'puter offering up only 'purified' water whatever that was.

Dissapointed at drawing such an unexpected blank I retreated to try and get the goods online - I had already noticed that Maplins supply the IPA for cleaning electronic stuff but I think it was a rather low purity and in any event apparently only available in 1L amounts.

Undeterred a day or two later, the worry over what that propellant was or was not doing to my precious optical coatings undiminished I whipped out google and to my surprise quickly sourced both distilled water and IPA! The former from Amazon of all places - more specifically a seller on the Amazon marketplace - a purveyor of supplies for the model railway enthusiast - it seems that Hornby sell, at inflated prices I am certain, distilled water for use in their 'Live Steam' locomotives. The IPA I sourced at a cleaning products company in N Ireland - result :headbang:.

A couple of clicks and my paypal accound significantly lighter I sat back to await the means to assuage my guilt at having defaced the scope.

So this morning the posty brought the IPA, the water having arrived on Sunday (oddly enough - again the post) and pulling out a trusty measuring cylinder I poured a finger of water and added a few drops of the hard stuff - a quick swill around the cylinder and presto I was ready to do that what you ought not with a brand new scope!

The cleaning itself was rather uneventful as it happens - though if I am honest I was surprised that even with the volatile IPA the evaporating solution still looked like it was going to leave marks, however a gentle dab with a tissue and they vanished I am happy to report.

Now I am the happy owner of a once again pristine instrument!

And the moral of the story?

People are dummer than you think! Well ok THAT'S not the moral - the moral is don't use a can of powerclean to remove dust from your lens! and if you absolutely must then don't, but if you are like me and choose to do so anyway, then keep the damn can far enought away from the lens to stop propellant from staining the glass! I think 6 inches ought to do it. Oh and buy a camel hair brush for the stubborn dust I you have to remove it :) - I know what my next purchase is going to be!

For those who do need to clean the glassware etc and can't find a supply of distilled water or Isopropyl Alchohol in the UK then details below.

So there we are, another rubycon crossed, another lesson learned and no real harm done (I hope! - time will tell).

Next - I might tell about my newbie experiences with my new MR finder - if the shoe arrives so I can attach it to the telescope that is...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Distilled Water:

Hornby Live Steam - World Wide Shopping Mall - www.worldwideshoppingmall.co.uk (although I ordered through amazon.co.uk) available in 1L containers.

Isopropyl Alchohol:

Mistral Pure Chemicals - Home Page - available in 250ml up to 25L - but it aint cheap!