Refractor Cleaning etc

[groberts]

Hitherto, I have used a lenspen / blower / compressed air for day-to-day cleaning of dust etc on my WO refractor but after a couple of years use I am noticing a few fingerprints that are more stubborn to remove. What would you recommend for cleaning a refractor lens?

I've recently seen the First Contact  system but it is very expensive  and don't altogether like the idea of sticking stuff onto the lens directly.  Would the Baader  Wonder Fluid be a good choice + are there any pitfalls using it?

Whilst on the subject, any recommendations for a decent lenspen? 

Thanks, Graham   

[Timebandit]

Hello,in my opinion Badder Wonder Fluid is the way to go. Get a very clean cloth also and spay onto the cloth , and not directly onto the lens

I hope the above helps☺

[Star Struck]

+1 for Baader Wonder Fluid and the Baader microfibre cloth.

[Peter Drew]

+1 for the recommendation.   

[LightBucket]

Dont clean it unless it's that bad it can be seen when viewing or in images...and it will need to be really really really bad for that to happen. that's the best advice I can give, you could make it a whole lot worse, the special coatings are delicate and you don't want to damage those.....  

[Highburymark]

If you search back a few months, a post by Stu on this forum shows how he did an excellent job of cleaning his Takahashi.

[mikeDnight]

I use this!

Available from your local optician, it is designed for camera/telescope lenses and to be gentle on your optical coatings as it is solvent free and leaves no residue. I've used it on my Takahashi FC100DC with great success. The lens cloth is worth getting also. It's relatively cheap too! 

[John]

Another vote for Baader Wonder fluid and their micro fibre cloth. Lasts a long time and very effective on eyepiece lenes as well as objective lenses. Spray the flluid on the cloth, not on the lens though. The instructions make this clear.

 

[Cjg]

Just be careful with the Baader wonder fluid, it's alcohol based, Takahashi have stated that alcoholic based products could damage their coatings, if I recall correctly. Not sure if that would apply to William Optics coatings too. 

+1 for Stu's post elsewhere on here as a guide to follow....

Chris

[RT65CB-SWL]

another +1 for Baader Wonder Fluid and a Baader microfibre cloth... plus I use a LensPen thingy.

[ronin]

If you are seeing finger prints then you need to clean them off. The fingers are a source of amino acid and that is what you are seeing. Try the Baader fluid it should work fine, after that not sure maybe IPA with care. I recall Tak not recommending something but cannot recall what they recommended as an alternative. Being a bit suspicious I wonder if it is some fluid they produce.

Get a couple of cloths, immaterial of all the blurb you will get a residue left and you will need to get that off also, but as said the finger prints are from amino acids and they need to come off.

[Alien 13]

I would stick with lens pens, all fluids just spread things like a grease spot over the whole surface and it takes a lot of rubbing to remove.

Alan

[timwetherell]

I use ethanol and soft tissue to clean refractors - including a WO66 I have - and it works really well even with stubborn fingerprints and other mystery gunk. My main rule is one wipe per tissue then discard it and get a new one. that way one minimises the damage done if there's anything slightly gritty or abrasive in the gunk. For the final clean I breathe on the lens to fog it up and wipe with another clean tissue. That way I remove the water soluble gunk and any water residue the alcohol leaves. As others say though, it doesn't need to be done unless it's very dirty.

[Moonshane]

Part of the issue here is that you want to keep your optics clean naturally.  so you read about it and people say don't do it unless really dirty.  then other people say that dew and dirt if left on the optics can cause creation of acids which harm the coatings.

The key is to consider that there are risks both ways. So clean or don't clean but if you do clean then ensure all possibly abrasive bits are blown off or brushed off before you start rubbing anything. Al Nagler recommends a mild household cleaner and a final huff of breath and a polish.  Baader wonder fluid does get good reviews but still use with care after brushing and blasting with a puffer.

I more or less clean only when I have just bought or am about to sell something.

[Highburymark]

22 hours ago, John said:

Another vote for Baader Wonder fluid and their micro fibre cloth. Lasts a long time and very effective on eyepiece lenes as well as objective lenses. Spray the flluid on the cloth, not on the lens though. The instructions make this clear.

 

John - I would have made the same recommendation - but as Chris mentions above, wonder fluid should not be used for FC Taks due to its alcohol content. Think I'll take Mike's advice and get something alcohol free for the FC-100

[Stu]

This was my take on it, specifically for an FC-100.

Key things from my perspective are getting rid of any grit which may scratch the objective, and I have also found that it is worth buying new microfiber cloths as they tend to leave no smears. I used Alcohol free lens cleaning solution from spec savers. I use Baader Wonderfluid for everything else, so as long as you don't have specific info suggestion not to use it (e.g. For Taks) I think it would be fine.

 

[John]

2 hours ago, Highburymark said:

John - I would have made the same recommendation - but as Chris mentions above, wonder fluid should not be used for FC Taks due to its alcohol content. Think I'll take Mike's advice and get something alcohol free for the FC-100

I've read about this advice and I'm not going to take any chances with my Tak although the Baader fluid has worked fine on both my ED120 and Vixen ED102 fracs. It should be OK on the OP's William Optics frac I think.

As yet, my Tak objective has nothing other than it's coatings on it

[LightBucket]

On 21/05/2017 at 14:40, Cjg said:

Just be careful with the Baader wonder fluid, it's alcohol based, Takahashi have stated that alcoholic based products could damage their coatings, if I recall correctly. Not sure if that would apply to William Optics coatings too. 

+1 for Stu's post elsewhere on here as a guide to follow....

Chris

I think that is a translation error, its ammonia based cleaners that should not be used, not alcohol, that's the way I understood it from an article I read on the CN forum....

to be honest a greasy fingerprint left on the lens for some time, would probably do more damage than any alcohol based cleaner..