Cleaning

[-Joe_]

What process do you lot use for cleaning the various optical components for my refractor? (I can see the post on the diagonal., so thats covered). I'm amazed how dirty my objectiove has become in just a couple of weeks, the flats I am taking are shocking!. I will also need to clean the filters, reducer, & glass cover for the camera sensor at some point...

just a blower & lens cleaner? Do it differ from cleaning normal camera lenses?

 

thanks

Joe

[MarsG76]

This is a personal opinion and I clean my glass and mirrors this way..... I think that touching or "scraping" glass and mirrors will compromise the coatings over time so the best way to clean the optics is not to touch it.... what I do is first blow off any dust or bigger particles with a blower and when that's done, I wash down the optics with distilled water out of a spray bottle....than wash the surface down with 100% isopropyl alcohol and than lastly wash it all down with distilled water and let it dry naturally.

Make sure that you use distilled water otherwise the minerals in regular water will dry on you optics.

It dries streak free and very clean, and touching it is not necessary...

 

 

 

[John]

When I've had to clean my refractor objectives I've used the Baader Fluid applied with their micro fibre cloth. I use the same on eyepieces. 

The initial outlay lasts  many cleans.

I use a manual "Hurricane" type blower to remove as much dust as possible before I use the cleaning fluid. The fluid is always sprayed onto the cloth rather than onto the glass as per the Baader instructions.

 

[DaveL59]

tend to agree on spraying the cloth and not the lens, with multi element setups the fluid can find its way between the air spaced lens elements, then you've a potential complete dismantle to clean it all up properly and reassembly can be "fun" getting it all set back into correct order and orientation...

[Astrobits]

I note that your location is Fishguard. Is the deposit on your equipment salt spray deposit? If so you will have to dissolve it off with water with little or no rubbing in the first instance. You can follow that with Isopropyl alcohol/Baader fluid and finally distilled water.

Nigel

[timwetherell]

For me it's blow any dust off with a hurricane blower, then gentle wipe with un-perfumed facial tissue moistened with pure ethanol. If there are any water soluble marks remaining I breathe on the lends to fog it and again wipe with tissue. My main rule is one wipe per tissue then get a new one so I can get through half a box cleaning the objective! Only needs doing about once every two years though.