cleaning eyepieces?

[Gloris]

i know that when it comes to cleaning, the mirrors are a no no....but what about eyepieces? Having just received my brand new sparkling William Optics 6mm piece, you can imagine the horror on my face when 2 dirty great black blobs appeared on the moon....and one smaller, but equally frustrating blob above them....at first i wasn't sure if it was the eyepiece or the mirrors, but rotating the eyepiece revealed it to be the culprit.

upon inspection, the top section (where you actually put your eye to) had a fairly substatial piece of dust on it...may have been my dry skin (i can see this bing a big problem, as it's something i have always suffered with unfortunately)....

obviously, i know not to touch the lenses, or use any standard cloth etc...but is there anything i should be using the keep the lenses clean?

I keep the caps on when they're not being used by the way, and then put all my eyepieces into a foam-cut-out-padded box.

to show how big the impact was on myviewing i've attached a dodgy pic of the moon taken with my phone....

[John]

I use a manually powered blower to blow any dust / debris off lenses. I think it's called the Hurricane blower. The ones powered by compressed gas etc are not recommended as they can deposit debris on the lenses themselves from the propellant.

For eyelash grease etc, the Baader Optical Wonder Fluid and micro fibre cloth are excellent.

[Sarah]

I use a manually powered blower to blow any dust / debris off lenses. I think it's called the Hurricane blower. The ones powered by compressed gas etc are not recommended as they can deposit debris on the lenses themselves from the propellant.

For eyelash grease etc, the Baader Optical Wonder Fluid and micro fibre cloth are excellent.

Like John, we use a blower, the Baader cloth and Baader Wonder Fluid.

[Gloris]

ok, good to know that i can safely clean them

i actually took the opposite idea and used a clean hoover nozzle to suck it off :s seemed to do the trick....but will invest in a blower and the baader cleaning equipment.

when you say "manual", do you mean like a bellow?

[Gloris]

what about this?

First Light Optics - Celestron Lens Pen

i was under the impression that touching the lenses....with anything....is generally a bad idea? microfibre cloths are one thing, but, a brush??? won't that be quite abbrasive?

[Moonshane]

I use a blower and tiny paintbrush to clear off dust etc which accumulates over time. this is enough for over a year and then I use isopropyl alcolhol or acetone and tissues (no pressure) after blowing/brushing off anything obvious. like mirrors though only do it when absolutely required.

[Grunthos]

FYI, Astronomy Shed have posted a decent YouTube video on

HTH

[John]

....i was under the impression that touching the lenses....with anything....is generally a bad idea? microfibre cloths are one thing, but, a brush??? won't that be quite abbrasive?

My blower just blows air - it has no bristles, nothing touches the lens.

[Gloris]

brilliant video...think it was his collimation video i saw about a week ago too. very helpful

thanks.

ordered the baader kit from FLO and a blower/lenspen/cloth/solution kit for £6.99 off amazon

hopefully that'll do the trick

[Caldwell 14]

I did the very same thing the first time I used my Baader zoom, panic at the time, no big deal later