SCT front lens cleaning

[Gregger]

Anyone done this to get rid of finger prints etc?

Any advice or tips to do it properly?

[E621Keith]

Air blower to blow off dust, then follow by Baader optical wonder fluid an pec pads

First Light Optics - Baader Optical Wonder Fluid

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PEC-PAD-Photowipes-Photographic-Emulsion-Sheets/dp/B0001M6K24

[ollypenrice]

My advice would be not to touch it, certainly not for fingerprints which will have absolutely no effect whatever, literally none, on the view you get. I would clean an SCT corrector once a year at the outside and probably less. Maybe once every three years.

A proprietory lens cleaning fluid and cloth can be used or you can brew up a liquid with a mix of distilled water, literally a drop of detergent and some isopropyl alchohol. Always use ight, curved motions and turn the cloth between wipes never using it twice. Curved scratches, God forbid, are not as bad as straight ones which will show.

In a nutshell, don't do it till it really is necessary and even then you won't see any difference!

Olly

[Merlin]

Take care, too, not to be too lavish with the cleaning fluid, as it might find it its way through the sealing ring and onto the back of the corrector plate ( or "front lens", as you call it ).

I had a friend who messed up the inside of his binocular objectives by applying too much liquid cleaner to the front surfaces of the objectives.

He squirted cleaner onto the objectives, when he should have applied the cleaner to the cloth instead.

[Gregger]

corrector plate ( or "front lens", as you call it ).

.

Of course, forget the proper name

Thanks for the tips gents

[pete_l]

Any advice or tips to do it properly?

First tip would be to orientate the SCT tube so that the 'scope is pointing down. That way any solutions you spray on the plate will run off, over the edge of the corrector and not down into the tube.

Next tip is to make sure there is no grit or other material on the CP that would scratch it if you wipe a cloth across it. We're told to "dab not wipe", but nobody ever does that completely. So minimise the possibility of dragging soemthing abrasive along with the cloth.

So far as cleaner is concerned, I just use a spray of window cleaning liquid. Just a thin spray - enough to dampen the CP is all it takes and I've never had it leave smears - though make sure you use a clean cloth, you don't want to just move the dirt around.