Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

help, smears after cleaning

Spec-Chum

Recommended Posts

glowjet

glowjet

Posted
Posted

If you are just taking a folded piece of the wonder cloth, dampened with a little fluid, and very gently wiping over the surface could be the reason why you are getting streaks, although wonder fluid is not supposed to leave any. I fold part of the cloth and make into a little cushion pad, dampen with a little fluid, then work in circles with a light but firm pressure around the lens / filter, making sure one corner of my pad is working into the edges, I then finish with a final polish, working in larger circles, with a dry piece after breathing on the lens, perfect streak free finish and looking like new. From a report I have seen, where a photographer degraded a quality lens to destruction, showed you need to do a very considerable amount of damage to the lens surface before any degradation of the image takes place, Cleaning and polishing with accredited materials is really not going to have any real effect on your lens performance :)

John.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply
E621Keith

E621Keith

Posted
Posted

When I clean my lenses, I use a blower to remove any dust on the surface, then clean with Baader fluid and cloth. Baader fluid will remove grease and fungus really effectively, but they do leave some mark after they dry. Usually this doesn't matter, but sometimes I follow up with Eclipse and Baader cloth or Pec Pad to remove the streak left behind by the Baader.

Photographic Solutions Eclipse is a pure IPA used for cleaning CCD, it doesn't leave any streak when it drys, but it is less effective on fungus and a bit more aggressive than Baader.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kirkster501

kirkster501

Posted
Posted

I had the same problem on my SCT 11 corrector when using a brand new Baader Wonder cloth and Baader fluid. Left a right mess - hideous streaks and i bought this stuff especially since it said it wouldn't. Used slight pressure (and all guides say use very VERY light pressure) and sort of removed it although I think I have a minute scratch about 5mm long now but very very shallow and faint. It was quite a hot day when I did it though outside. Maybe next time ti will be cooler with a better result.

I can get my flippin' house windows cleaner much easier with soap and water and they come up sparkling. Maybe a similar approach is required with optics - just get on with it !

Link to comment
Share on other sites
E621Keith

E621Keith

Posted
Posted

I had the same problem on my SCT 11 corrector when using a brand new Baader Wonder cloth and Baader fluid. Left a right mess - hideous streaks and i bought this stuff especially since it said it wouldn't. Used slight pressure (and all guides say use very VERY light pressure) and sort of removed it although I think I have a minute scratch about 5mm long now but very very shallow and faint. It was quite a hot day when I did it though outside. Maybe next time ti will be cooler with a better result.

I can get my flippin' house windows cleaner much easier with soap and water and they come up sparkling. Maybe a similar approach is required with optics - just get on with it !

Don't use window cleaner, it dangerous. First, you are never sure of the purity of that stuff, causing minor scratch on a window is a small issue, scratching a telescope lens is a different matter. Then you don't know how the chemical composition of the cleaner and whether it will be corrosive to the optic glass and coating. Anti reflection coating is not glass and has different chemical property.

Optics cleaners are designed for cleaning optics would be designed to be inert on the chemical used in common coatings. Windows cleaner were never designed to be compatible with optical coatings so it best to leave it for the windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
glowjet

glowjet

Posted
Posted

I had the same problem on my SCT 11 corrector when using a brand new Baader Wonder cloth and Baader fluid. Left a right mess - hideous streaks and i bought this stuff especially since it said it wouldn't. Used slight pressure (and all guides say use very VERY light pressure) and sort of removed it although I think I have a minute scratch about 5mm long now but very very shallow and faint. It was quite a hot day when I did it though outside. Maybe next time ti will be cooler with a better result.

I can get my flippin' house windows cleaner much easier with soap and water and they come up sparkling. Maybe a similar approach is required with optics - just get on with it !

Cleaning you optics outside in the open air could lead to problems, even on a hot day, though the air may seem to be still, there are many air currents which carry minute particles and theses really can, if they get between your cloth and the glass cause minute scratches in the surface, but even this will not effect the efficiency of the lens either visually or photographically. The job is best done in the quite of a small room where the air has not been disturbed too much :)

John.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Uranium235

Uranium235

Posted
Posted

If youre certain that it may be a funky cloth, then ditch it and use lens tissues instead. One to apply the cleaning fluid, and two or three more to remove it (then a dose of the rocket blower to finish). I use lens tissues for cleaning everything including EPs, filters and CCD cameras. The only thing that gets special attention is the primary and secodary mirrors of the newt, where its just a bit of warm soapy water rinsed off with distilled water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Spec-Chum

Spec-Chum

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks all for this very informative thread. May I just ask, I seen a few comments say things like use different cloth/tissue/etc to remove the fluid. How much fluid do you apply? By the time I've finished applying the fluid it's pretty much dry (and streaky) and there's nothing to remove?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
E621Keith

E621Keith

Posted
Posted

I'm speechless. Nevertheless I will continue to use the 'fancy stuff'. I can't trust Halford or the supermarket to keep their cleaner contaminant free. Especially a lot of the modern cleaners include a water repellent formula which is just going to will ruin a lens.

I totally agree with his point about reusing cloths, I think I will switch to lens tissue in the future

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Uranium235

Uranium235

Posted
Posted

Ah, one other thing I forgot to mention.

While cleaning, if you wear an LED headtorch set to full beam (white light) it will make even the smallest of smears and specks easy to spot. It will also reveal whether the optical surface needs a full clean, or just a spot clean.

Im a bit OCD when it comes to dusssst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 6 months later...
LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

Posted
Posted

Could you not wear surgical gloves whilst using the cloth to prevent finger greese transfering to the cloth?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Not a bad idea. I naturally have oily skin and worry about transferring oil to the cloth i clean optics with............resulting in smears. It happens when i even clean my glasses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
x6gas

x6gas

Posted
Posted

I've heard that regular Kleenex tissue is the best to use over micro cloth. The throw away convinance and pure chemical properties makes it ideal. Pat

I'm really surprised by this too. I'd read that tissue paper was relatively abrasive and to be avoided at all costs. Maybe we're at the mercy of the marketing people as I don't want to do anything that risks the optics...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pianorealm

pianorealm

Posted
Posted

Hi.

I'm new to astronomy but have worked repairing binoculars for years. The way I clean optics are as follows;

  1. Blow any dust off the surface with compressed air. Either from a proprietary can or an air line.
  2. Instead of a cleaning or microfibre cloth I use a box of paper tissues. Don't use the ones with a balm impregnated...I just use plain Tesco budget ones.
  3. My experience is that proprietary cleaning fluids ALWAYS leave streaks
  4. I use Isopropanol or acetone as close to 100 percent as I can. I would not however recommend acetone to clean eyepieces as it may affect the plastic.
  5. Fold the tissue to a kind of point. Slightly dampen the tissue with propanol. Do NOT spray directly onto the lens. With multi element eyepieces the fluid can seep down into the optical assembly and even creep between bonded lenses.
  6. Gently, and with a circular motion start cleaning in the centre of the lens and work your way outwards.
  7. Do NOT apply too much pressure. Modern coatings are very good, but they are also very thin and delicate. It is all too easy to remove these coatings
  8. Repeat if necessary. Use a clean tissue each time...they're cheap enough.
  9. Now here's the less than scientific bit, which I have found gives good results. Breath on the optical surface and then again very gently use a clean tissue in a circular motion as described above.
  10. NEVER clean a lens with a completely dry tissue or cleaning cloth

Hope this helps.

Howard

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pat

pat

Posted
Posted

If anyone is wondering about the safety of using regular Kleenex tissures read this by a member in Astronomy Forum.

When you pulp soft wood, you remove a lot of the cell matrix-when you bleach it, you remove the rest. All you have left with then is cellulose-which is basically cotton. It's pretty close to silk.

If you make a cloth from microfibre, it is made of rayon- oil byproduct. which is forced through a spinaret and cooled or hardened chemically like spun sugar. It's quite solf, but I figure it's controlled by the state of machinery at the macro level. The wood pulp is chemically down to the atomic level.

Search at the top of the page by typing in Kleenex tissures. For how they are made. Pat

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.