eye piece cleaning

[gary1968]

Just a quick question, is the Baader EP cleaning solution the way to go for cleaning EP's?

Mine could do with a spruce up as they are now 2 years old and never been cleaned.

If not this then what would you recomend?

Thanks in advance................... :salute:

Gary

[Andrew*]

Yeah - use the Baader stuff. Works a treat.

Andrew

[mdstuart]

But watch it as if you touch the lens with anything even soft cotton wool you might take some of the coatings off. They all seem very sensitive, think of it as a spay on very thin layer of honey.

Having said that where I have taken a little coating off it has not significantly degraded the performance of the lens.

[Andrew*]

I think modern coatings are pretty robust, actually. In any case, before touching any optical surface ALL dust must be blown or brushed gently off.

Andrew

[Albireo380]

I agree Andrew, as it seems to work for me. I also use a Celestron Lenspen, which also seems to work well.

If I had known yetsreday evening Gary, you could have tried the lens pen on one of your Eyepieces, I had the lenspen with me at Harperigg.

Tom

[Brinders]

I have tried a number of solutions, but providing you don't let the dirt build up too much and blow off any dust with a manual air blower such as the Giotto jumbo blower (looks like a fat rocket) I find a lens pen is the best routine. I use Jessop's lens pen, but it looks to be exactly the same as Celestron's.

I do some ProAm photography and this is the same routine I have used for some years now on the Skylight and UV filters I always use to protect my camera lenses.

Brinders

[Astronut]

Use a good quality bulb blower (the Matin Silicone Jumbo Blower is the one I use) to give it a good blast of air to get rid of any dust. Baader fluid gets rid of grease spots but don't apply the fluid directly to the lens as it could seep around the edges and end up inside the eyepiece. Wet a cotton bud with it and gently apply with little to no pressure to the lens surface using small circular motions. Finish off with a Lenspen to get rid of any streaks left behind.

Lenspens are great but make sure it's a genuine one (distributed by Parkside Optical Inc, Vancouver, Canada) - I've heard there are some imitations on the market.

[acey]

A gentler alternative to Baader is ROR (residual oil remover). Baader is a mixture of alcohols, ROR is soap with some ammonia. I recently used ROR to clean some filthy eyepieces and it was fine - the only gripe is that has a tendency to shift rather than dissolve grime, so you can end up with a very thin ring of scum round the edge. But it doesn't eat plastic or coatings.

[gary1968]

Thanks for the replys folks.

Now, you say to make sure all dust particles etc are gone BEFORE touching the glass with anything and suggest blowers and canned air. I have a compressor at home fitted with a basic filter and water trap would I be able to use the air from that or is that not recomended?

I will go to Jessops over the weekend and get a lens pen and perhaps a call to FLO for some of the Baader stuff.

Thanks again,

Gary

[mdstuart]

BUT do not touch anything if the performance of the lens is actually 99% as good as it has always been. Why take the risk...

[Astronut]

Compressors and canned air are not recommended. Canned air will have propellant mixed in with it and the air from a compressor is not guaranteed to be free of oil and particles. Use a giant bulb blower as suggested.

[oceanheadted]

Take extreme care if you are cleaning a Pentax XF lens. I used some Baader WF on it and it seems to have taken some of the coating off. I was using a cotton bud and *might* have been a bit heavy handed. It worked well on my other eyepieces (meade 4000 and skywatcher stock ep's). Fortunately the view seems unimpaired.