TAL100 objective lens clean

[nightfisher]

Okay, where to start, i had been storing my 100rs in a space that turned out to be damp, my scope was showing the very first signs of a little mold on the lens, so panic set in and the decision was made to dismantle and deep clean the glass, now there is next to nothing on this subject on the net, a little advice was sought from philj and Andy H, cheers lads.

On the following pics you will see bits of red tape, these were reference markers for re assembly, the first of these were added one on the outer cell and a matching one on the tube to to get the cell back on as it came of

                                                                                                

Then i had to slacken 2 tiny screws in the edge of the cell, marked with small red squares to remind me to tighten by half a turn, there are 3 of these but one was left at factory to give me a return ref.

Next up was the bezel ring that holds the front element,

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                 

Once this was out i then found the rear cell was bonded in with silicone, so i decided to leave this in place and just remove the front element, see the masking tape "handle" to lift this out with care,

                                                                                                 

I am glad to say it went well, and the foil spacers were held in place, maybe the factory put a little adhesive on these, then it was a case of cleaning each inner glass surface, then re assembling the glass, then a clean on both outer glass surfaces, i used a can of air duster to make sure no grit/dust was present then used Baader wonder fluid with a freshly cleaned micro fibre cloth on the optics.

                                                               job done

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                 

[Blazar]

Nice job Jules. Where was it stored originally?

Both of my 100RS are outside their boxes in the garage (still connected to their wooden pallets) with all their caps on etc. The 100R is in its wooden box, with some dew prevention sachets in their as well. Have not checked them in a while (as need to be able to throw them on the AVX, and not sure which dovetail to use. Assume for me it will be a new set of rings that fit onto a new skywatcher bar.)  I must get that sorted to try them out with the ZWO at some point.

Le us know how it goes when you use the TAL again.

[Astro_Baby]

Jules,

How do you know how tight to put the front retaining ring in and also the outer retaining screws.

I have no reason to doubt my own scopes optics BUT I recall ading some time back about someone having their TAL 125 hand tuned by some whizz....any idea who that might be and or some source data on establishing the perfection of the set up ?

Good job by the way on cleaning.

[Jim Steele]

Hi Jules,

Good job on the clean, I may need to remeber how you did it at some point in the future..,

I have no reason to doubt my own scopes optics BUT I recall ading some time back about someone having their TAL 125 hand tuned by some whizz....any idea who that might be and or some source data on establishing the perfection of the set up ?

Good job by the way on cleaning.

AB this was probibly Marki's 125 thread linked. I cant remember who he used, mabye send him a PM?

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/152925-tal125r-first-impressions/

[AndyH]

Nicely done Jules

A nice set of pics and written notes. A fine resource for those thinking of doing this themselves.

[nightfisher]

If any one has any questions i will do my best to help out, i have to say i may have been mistaken with the mold issue but some small marks had appeared that were not there before it spent some time in a moldy area so best to be safe 

[nightfisher]

Had the TAL out for half hour tonight pushed her to x200 on the trapezium, got my first view of Jupiter this year and she is star testing textbook airy disks

[sloz1664]

Nice one Jules. It makes you feel so elated on completion of a task you have dreaded since discovering the problem.

So pleased the good ol TAL's back to it's old best.

Steve

[nightfisher]

Nice one Jules. It makes you feel so elated on completion of a task you have dreaded since discovering the problem.

So pleased the good ol TAL's back to it's old best.

Steve

Thanks Steve, i have posted this in case any one needs to do this, but i also hope no one has to ever do this to their TAL, at least my old girl is now good as new

[col]

Thanks to you showing us what to do Iv just cleaned mine too. On close inspection in the front of the scope  I noticed what appeared to be water type marks which I first thought was mould, as mine too had been stored in a damp place for years. 

After removing the lens I thought I'd clean the outer of the lens as it was the internal side that needed cleaning.

 Once this was done I carefully looked at the lens without splitting them and found the two surfaces sealed together we're still clean and clear, so I decided to not split them to clean as it wasn't needed.

 Thanks to your help and because I didn't need to split the lens I had it done and back together in  no time.

 That night I looked at the moon , as I have been doing a lot recently, and found a brighter more crisp view or so it seemed to me.

 I had thought about getting a new scope before doing this, but once I had relooked through my Tal 100R with cleaned optics I changed my mind.

 It feels like I already have a new scope and it's still performing very well as it always did twenty years ago when I recieved it as a Christmas present from my wife.

 Many thanks nightfisher for posting this how to, you saved me a lot of money on a new scope and also saved my Tal100R from becoming relegated to collecting dust in favour of another scope. Which would have been a terrible mistake on my part.