Baader wonder fluid does wonders - buy it - use it :D

[AlexB67]

So I felt my BGO 5mm was probably ready for another wipe, upon inspection using a magnifying glass I also felt the outer element on the lower end look a bit iffy, so gave that a clean, as well as the eye lens, I was wondering last night why the contrast wasn't quite as how I remembered it as well as scatter, Now everything wonderful again.

Lesson. If you use orthos clean them often to get rid of any deposits eyelashes may put on there.

Just some wonderful views of mars again with amazing contrast that the BGO lacked a little last night and tonight it has it all back. Tonight the BGO is the weapon of choice on mars so far, such a clean image, wonderful. Don't underestimate  how much dirt can affect eyepieces.

Righto, a brew and I am off viewing again

[John]

I think the seeing here is slightly better than last night Alex but the Baader fluid is wonderful stuff alright !

I messed up a nice plossl eyepiece a few years ago by not using good cleaning technique and equipment. Never again !!!

You do need to get your eye very close to the 5mm orthos though. Not surprising that the eye lens gets a bit messy 

[AlexB67]

I think the cleaning helped quite a bit I found. I am able to compare to the Radian side by side as well in same conditions, and now with my super light shield on the Dob, in the Baader the background was darker in comparison to the radian compared to yesterday too, some of that will be magnification difference as per normal, but it was clearly a bit more of a pronounced difference, In fact that Baader eyepiece is so dark in the background,  the field stop is not a much deeper black. 

Can't wait to ge the pentax xw 7 in a few days in the post, ortho like views but with a whopping 70 degrees and loads of eye relief is what I am sort of expecting

Very good again seeing here again tonight too. Once the scope was out for about and hour and  half after a brew, a very thin mist came over,  I ended up with 300x again with my 6mm Radian 1.5x barlow for some very nice detail. Once I have the pentax next week, I have  another mag option in between as well, that Antares is tempting, but the current cheapo 1.5 barlow element is serving me well all the same as a quick fix on Mars.

Two late mars nights, bedtime way overdue, sleep deprivation will be an issue tomorrow, but Mars is well worth it, make the most of them when they come I say

[alan potts]

It sort of points out that I am dirty but I I have had the same bottle for about 5 years, I hope it don't go off. I only really use it to clean the front collectors once in a while, I can't say any of my eyepieces look dirty and as for the BGO's they are too small for me to see without glasses.

It is very good but must not be over used.

Alan.

[AlexB67]

You are right Alan, it is a  bad idea to go and advertise clean you eyepieces like it is washing up on a regular basis, which was not my intention  .  In general I am not one for the cleaning type if I can avoid it, only If I can really think it is needed, more so the case with mirrors especially. None of the longer eye relief eyepieces I have ever needed it really, one of the two second hand ones I got I cleaned once, only the baader 5mm now twice. I think just because my eye get so close to it, it is like it had a small layer of grease on it after much use lately. I don't see how I can avoid that happening with such a tight eyepiece, with presumably occasionally an eye lash going over it.  I try not to let that happen of course and hasn't happened with any others. 

I do believe though when I read a bit about the tech about the coating on eyepieces the outer exposed ones are actually pretty tough, A different process to deposit the outer coatings is used I believe,  especially on some the more modern ones are even more scratch resistant these days. but worth saying that you would not want to clean them often if you can avoid it and there is no need and to just clean for the sake of it.  Like a mirror, a bit of dust here or there, even if you can see it quite a bit, doesn't matter I feel, but grease and fats once they form a layer or streaks on the eyepiece has more impact.

[faulksy]

using my 5mm bgo now on jupiter, brilliant views, and eye relief is fine and tracking

[Stu]

Getting a 5mm Hutech soon so am looking forward to using it, hoping from what you say that eye relief will be fine.

Stu

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[John]

I was using the Astro Hutech 5mm ortho on the Moon and Mars last night. It gave some fine views 

[Mike73]

I got to admit I'm may be a bit too relaxed about cleaning EP's, I only do them when they really need it but Baader Wonderfluid always does a cracking job.

I've had the 16" in the garden tonight, I never really bother with it at home for moon and planets but its actually been quite good. Seeing conditions seemed to be really good around dusk, Jupiter looked very nice at x275, thats the most power I've ever used on it but seeing conditions have dropped as it got dark and I finished on x180. Just waiting another hour for Mars to get higher.

[jabeoo1]

I have a sealed pack, when they need it they will get treatment for sure.  Glad to hear this liquid is the bees knees. We should all have a bottle for sure. 

[jabeoo1]

Seeing conditions seemed to be really good around dusk, Jupiter looked very nice at x275, thats the most power I've ever used on it but seeing conditions have dropped as it got dark.

Some of the best contrast I have ever seen on Jupiter's disk is that special time between day and night.  Amazing, just need to remember to do it more often. 

[Qualia]

I guess I'm in the camp of not really cleaning too much I sometimes give the lens a blow with the pear-bulb thingy but will rarely use liquid and cloth. Most of the eyepieces in the collection have such generous eye-relief that I feel they're not being dirtied too much and the small BGOs are being cleaned by my own tears of joy as I see a sharp and contrasty image come in to view

[AlexB67]

Getting a 5mm Hutech soon so am looking forward to using it, hoping from what you say that eye relief will be fine.

Stu

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Stu In practice I am well used to the 5mm BGO eyepiece by now, I've done very long sessions with it I think the eye relief is fine to be perfectly useable, but I do use it in such a way that I see the field stop pretty much all of the time. You do need to be quite a still person to get on with the 5mm I feel, any moving of the head  at very high mag of course will cause vibration. If you played a  lot of pool or snooker as I did when younger you train to have a still head, may be that has helped me a bit  , who knows,  but I do not find that to be a problem. The nice thing about a DOB, they are nice and sturdy things    Very occasionally I have had it fog up on me too, only once or twice very briefly.   Of course to say it is comfortable a straight comparison to something with big eyerelief ? ... it isn't that I would say. 

I've not found tracking an issue either, that is just with a standard SW mount  that gets so often slated for not being the smoothest, but it works for me as long as I really fine tune the tension handles at both ends, but not over tighten at just one end, I believe that is key to get the most out of that tension handle system.  You fancy OO  mount owners should find it a breeze no doubt with that superior movement in alt-z.   I also used the 5mm BGO with a 1.5x barlow element on the moon too quite a few times now, that gives 360x and a peep hole view and I can still manage to be useable, though it becomes a challenge to get smooth nudges at that point with my scope.

With regard to dirt buildup, I have long eye lashes and they touch the top sometimes, that will have contributed too. I  wouldn't overly worry, that said with an eyepiece that tight I do think there is not a whole lot you can do and just accept the fact they get dirty a bit more quickly.