Refractor Lense Cleaning

[stuffedhaggis]

HI all

I am looking for some advice as usual lol. So as you may or not know. I purchaced a nice EVO star 150 during the week. Some of the packing was damaged during transit. So there is now dust on the lens and inside the lense. I have blown as much as I can from the outside.

There is a nice video on YouTube

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So I have purchased some Isopropanol Cleaning fluid. And Lens cleaning tissues.

Would you trust the method in the video or got any more tips.

[nightfisher]

I would say, most refractor people tend to use Baader wonder fluid with the micro fibre cloth, its easy to remove the entire lens cell as it unscrews from the tube, but dont seperate the crown and flint lens unless you know what your doing 

[stuffedhaggis]

So don't have the badder fluid. But looking to do this over the weekend.

[John]

I've done a few objective lenses including where I've needed to remove them from the cell and clean between the elements. I've always used the Baader Fluid / micro fibre cloth / strong blower brush approach and it's worked well.

[Alien 13]

As a cautionary note i would personally never use any fluid if the optics have cemented lenses but fine with air spaced, with my kit i have allways prefered the use of a "lens pen"

Alan

[stuffedhaggis]

As a cautionary note i would personally never use any fluid if the optics have cemented lenses but fine with air spaced, with my kit i have allways prefered the use of a "lens pen"

Alan

I have a lense pen and brush. I am happy to use that method to as I know it works

[ronin]

I use IPA for cleaning optics and so far so good.

Will say that it is said that IPA doesn't leave a residue but I always find that I have to give the surface a clean with a dry bit of the cloth to actually get it clean/clear.

Find that managing to clean the edges is a problem, they are "guarded" by the metal fittings and dirt/gunge sits there, find it best for the edges to soak a cotten wool bud and wipe it around the edge is easiest way to get at the edges.

Like many things it is a case of take care and use common sense.

[stuffedhaggis]

I use IPA for cleaning optics and so far so good.

Will say that it is said that IPA doesn't leave a residue but I always find that I have to give the surface a clean with a dry bit of the cloth to actually get it clean/clear.

Find that managing to clean the edges is a problem, they are "guarded" by the metal fittings and dirt/gunge sits there, find it best for the edges to soak a cotten wool bud and wipe it around the edge is easiest way to get at the edges.

Like many things it is a case of take care and use common sense.

Do you dilute it ?

[ollypenrice]

I've always used isopropyl alchol diluted but who knows? Residual 'smears' are an amateur's concern, according to my professional friend. They are effects you see when looking at the optics but when you look through them they don't matter at all.

You are most unlikely to see any benefit whatever from most cleaning. In extreme cases, yes. In general, no.

Olly

[nightfisher]

Just a caution from me, optics need far less cleaning than you might think, take my TAL100 for example,  it has some cloth fibre trapped between the lens and some dust, this has been there for about 3 years but you just dont see it under the night sky, i had an Antares 105 f15 frac, this had a big clamshell chip in the crown lens but again was not visible under a night sky

[Herbig]

It's very tempting to want to get you're optics as clean as poss, but you say the scope is new so it can't be that bad can it?

Most advise to lave it alone unless it's really bad.

That said I use the Baader stuff but I've also made my own using IPA 50/50 with distilled water and a drop of washing up liquid. I got this recipe from a book about telescope maintenance but I only use it on the less important stuff and my specs!

Use a blower and camel hair brush to begin with, don't be tempted to use the canned spray stuff they use to clean computers as there can be some nasties in it.

[stuffedhaggis]

Thanks for the advice guys