How do I clean my lens?

[Gunnar]

Hi all.

I need to clean the multi-coated Schott BK7 front meniscus lens on my skywatcher 190 maksutov newton telescope. I am a bit afraid about doing this the wrong way and scratching it.

What Is the best method to clean the schott lens?

Gunnar

[Rufusgj]

I tend to use this combination for EP's and the corrector plate on my SCT:

First Light Optics - Baader Optical Wonder Fluid

Simon

[ZEbbEDY]

you can get 250ml of isopropyl alcohol 99% of crookbay for 3.50

[NickK]

I tend to use this combination for EP's and the corrector plate on my SCT:

First Light Optics - Baader Optical Wonder Fluid

Simon

Used this to clean the Pentax. Needless to say I was bricking myself too!

Note - there's a technique too so that you don't grind the dirt into the lens as it's being cleaned. You'll need to learn that before attempting it!

[John]

Another vote for the Baader Wonder Fluid and the micro fibre cloth. I've done the corrector on my Intes mak-newtonian with that and it came up really nicely. It's the only stuff I will use on my Nagler and Ethe eypieces.

Why risk a near £1K scope to save a few £'s on cleaning gear ? - doesn't make sense to me

[ZEbbEDY]

looks like its isopropyl/ethanol mix with water?

[NickK]

looks like its isopropyl/ethanol mix with water?

It's less hassle to source (pure water, pure pair of alcohols) and the mix would remain consistent over time. You'd also need to experiment to find the best blend although it does give blend info there.

The Pentax cannot be replaced or repaired. Why risk £8-20 every 1-3 years when replacing the Pentax now would be like buying a Takahashi..

[johninderby]

Yet another vote for the Baader Optical Wonder Fluid. It does work and you know that you're getting just the right formulation, and also the cleaning cloth is far better than your average camera cleaning cloth.

BTW Astro-Physics recommends it for cleaning their scopes.

John

[glowjet]

Baader Optical Wonder fluid and micro cleaning cloth, also invest in a large blower bulb as used by photographers, but remove the brush if it has one, useful for blowing muck and dust from optical surfaces. cotton buds can also be useful but once wiped on the optical surface discard straight away.

John.

[focaldepth]

As a regular user/cleaner or camera lenses, I can see no difference in the technique or materials. Both are very expensive and made to (roughly) similar standards.

Compressed air to blast off large debris.

Small air brush to shift smaller debris.

Apply a little solvent.

Clean with gentle circular, outward movements turning/folding the cloth often.

I shake the cloth often as well.

Inspect regularly.

I agree camera shop cloths are poor. I like the ones from vision express. Microfibre tens to grab at the lens glass which I do not like.

[NickK]

The method I used on the Pentax was:

1. Air dust (not compressed but bulb)

2. 1st pass - Use meniscous application with a pure cotton bud - rolling it without touching the lense but allowing the fluid to suck up the dirty as it moves into the cotton bud - throw the bud away at the end of each rotation. The fluid as a solvent will remove most dirt in this way.

3. Allow to dry to check state of lense - at this point it may not need additional work.

4. 2nd pass - switch to microfibre with fluid, using a centre to outside motion only (not spirals) use a crease in the cloth to move across lense with the pressure coming from the coth weight and not your hand. For each stroke, move to a clean section of cloth (and don't reuse an area - although it's possible to wash microfibre, they are £4).

Not sure if that's the correct method but it worked without a scratch on a lense with quite a bit of dirt.

[Skills]

"although it's possible to wash microfibre"

by hand or throw it in the washing machine?

cheers

Adrian

[focaldepth]

Nickks method is good as well. I tend to throw a way rather than wash. Dread to think what is in washing powder or in my washing machine for that matter.

Just sit and watch the guys washing cars in supermarket carparks. Take notes and do the opposite. I was sat next to one the other day watching him use road dirt as grinding paste on the car parked next to mine. Have you seen the waterless car washes, Ouch!

[NickK]

"although it's possible to wash microfibre"

by hand or throw it in the washing machine?

cheers

Adrian

For me after cleaning the lenses once, the cloth gets relegated to cleaning the outside of the scope... progressively getting more dirt until it goes into the bin.

[Gunnar]

Ok!

Thank you ewerybody for helpful advices. I will get some Baader Optical Wonder fluid and micro cleaning cloth then.

Thanks

Gunnar

[Kevdan]

Hi,

If anyone needs any pure water which has 0.0 TDS (total dissolved solids) then just pop to your local aquatic store, Most marine fish (salt water) keepers like myself have our own RO unit to produce pure de-ionised water (if any of you are near Dudley west mids just pop round and have as much as you like I'm not on a water meter) I produce around 50gallon per day when I use it fo rmy fish tank.

Aquatic shops sell this for around £4 per 5 gallon so would possibly let you have a pop bottle full for £1 or so.

Kev.

[focaldepth]

Have to admit when I am wrong. (Well almost a little bit wrong).

Just got the Baader fluid and microfibre cloth form FLO.

While the Vision Express cloths are very good, I think the one from FLO is much better.

Now I have to order some more! One for the camera bag, one for the wife's camera etc....

[moonwatcher]

hello, i have spent a couple of hours trying to clean a cheap kellner ep with a meade micro-cloth and some cheap products i bought - with varying success, all the main grubby stuff has gone, all that's left is that "colony of bacteria" i can't seem to shift and the stray spec of dirt or micro-fibre that seems to always get missed. Could that Baader Optical Wonder fluid and micro cleaning cloth do the trick as far as the bacteria-looking circles go??? any advice/help appreciated - also thanks to NickK - your advice was helpful, soon as i read it i went and had another go, that seemed to help.

Also i have one of those "toy" mircoscopes and thought I would see what these stubborn circles really were. there is a lot of detail at x100 and the state of the eyepiece looks like it was cleaned by one of those waterless car-washes that focaldepth was on about, many pit-mark looking scratches and various globular clusters of god knows what. Might try and culture a sample...some just don't show up in the telescope, whilst others may streak the view.

Thanks to all in this thread.

[Stephen]

Hi,

If anyone needs any pure water which has 0.0 TDS (total dissolved solids) then just pop to your local aquatic store, Most marine fish (salt water) keepers like myself have our own RO unit to produce pure de-ionised water (if any of you are near Dudley west mids just pop round and have as much as you like I'm not on a water meter) I produce around 50gallon per day when I use it fo rmy fish tank.

Aquatic shops sell this for around £4 per 5 gallon so would possibly let you have a pop bottle full for £1 or so.

Kev.

Just beware, de ionised water (as purchased off the shelf,) is not always particulate free. Distilled water is.

[Kevdan]

Just beware, de ionised water (as purchased off the shelf,) is not always particulate free. Distilled water is.

Agree but it is 99.9% better than tap water.

[Stephen]

Agree but it is 99.9% better than tap water.

Absolutely, but it's the particulates in the water that will leave marks and stains on optics / mirrors.

[pat]

Just pure acetone,sounds harsh, But that's what TV uses on their coatings to clean them. Don't use nail polish remover! Pat

Too many stars too little time

**************

[inspectapart]

isopropyl alcohol diluted with distilled water is good, but.............

When you first think about cleaning a lens remember the golden rule, and that is......

First off, only clean if the lens needs it! But the really important first step when cleaning any lens or mirror is USE A PUFFER BRUSH FIRST!!!

IT IS SOMETHING YOU CAN EASILY FORGET IN YOUR ENTHUSIASM TO REMOVE THE ODD SMUDGE OR SPEC OF DUST. iF YOU FAIL TO BLOW OFF THE LENS YOU COULD STAND A CHANCE OF SCRATCHING IT.

bOB.

[GoatGirl]

Soft make up blusher brush

3 GBP, why pay astronomical prices for an overpriced "lens brush" from an astronomy store? Amazon have them for 3GBP vs 10 GBP in an telescope / scamera store.

Example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/W7-Soft-Blusher-Bronzer-Brush/dp/B00365SR8I/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1316380029&sr=8-5 2.99 GBP

vs

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/celestron-lens-pen.html 9.90 GBP LOL!

[John]

Soft make up blusher brush

3 GBP, why pay astronomical prices for an overpriced "lens brush" from an astronomy store? Amazon have them for 3GBP vs 13 GBP in an telescope / scamera store.

Why take a risk with hundreds of £'s worth of optics to save a tenner