Cleaning

[stickbow]

Hi All

This maybe a dumb question but last night I had about 3 great hours of looking at venus and Saturn after all the rain we have had (at 200 mag I could see Saturn clearly and a very clear black gap between the planet and the rings, is this what is called the cassini division does anyone know)and when I took the scope down it was quite wet on the outside, It is a SW skymax 150 pro Maksutov and I was wondering the best way to clean it and more importantly the front lens, should I dry it off witha soft towel or let it dry naturally in a cool room and do I then need to clean the front glass?

Cheers Guy's

[mdhardy01]

The Cassini division is I think a gap between the rings

As for cleaning dry the outside of the scope but leave the outer lens to dry on its own don't touch it

Point the scope down as well to let water run of

Might be worth buying or making a dew sheild to help stop the lens getting dewed up

Matt

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[RogerTheDodger]

Loads of info on Saturn's rings here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn

[John]

The pic below shows the main features of Saturn and it's ring system. The Cassini division can be quite tricky to pick out if the seeing conditions are not A1. The Crepe ring is even more challenging but doable under excellent conditions.

I'd leave the front lens of your scope to dry naturally - don't be tempted to wipe it with anything. Maks are "dew magnets" so some form of dew prevention, either heated anti-dew bands or a decent length dew shield, are essential. They should be designed into the scope as they are with refractors, in my opinion !.