Cleaning ep's

[Dave scutt]

Hi everyone. 

I just brought these and was wondering if they would be ok to clean my ep's with, I have baddar fluid but no cloth so I thought I'd give this a try.

Thanks dave 

Edited May 27, 2022 by Dave scutt
Forgot to add image😂

[DaveL59]

They'd probably work just be very gentle when using them. I use the Zeiss ones myself, both wipes and also the spray bottles and have used them on my glasses and also bino, camera and eyepiece lenses with no ill effect 🙂 

[bosun21]

I also have the Zeiss lens wipes but I only use them for cleaning the body and barrel for which they are great. For the actual lenses I use the Baader wonder fluid with either the Baader microfiber cloth or a Calotherm Cali cloth. For pollen or a fingerprint  I will use ROR on the same cloths.

[Franklin]

Zeiss wipes and Baader fluid and cloths + bulb blower, Q-tips for me. Your optical wipes say they have Antibacterial properties, not sure what that is but I wouldn't use on anything other than reading glasses. Likewise don't use Q-tips or cotton buds that have added moisturisers or fragrances. They'd be great for cleaning the outside barrels of eyepieces etc.

[Chaz2b]

I have mentioned in my thread about cleaning optics, that the Zeiss cleaning kit works very well, also as mentioned, use as little force as necessary. I wouldn’t use Q tips on the optics, they can hold onto particles that would scratch the coatings.

back in the day, it was good ole spit and polish!🥴

chaz

[apaulo]

i find these very good when needed which isnt very often.

[Paz]

I use baader fluid and these wipes below, but the main thing I do to keep eyepieces clean is I always blow them with a blower when I cap them off as bits of dust blow off easily if you do it when they have not been on the glass for long. Once they've been there a while they stick more, and if you let an eyepiece dew up then anything on it at that point gets stuck on even more so I try to avoid letting them dew up also.

[RT65CB-SWL]

One thing I have noticed with some brands of optical wet-wipes in the past, is that some are just to wet. So I wring them out to remove the excess liquid before use.

[DaveL59]

27 minutes ago, Paz said:

I use baader fluid and these wipes below, but the main thing I do to keep eyepieces clean is I always blow them with a blower when I cap them off as bits of dust blow off easily if you do it when they have not been on the glass for long. Once they've been there a while they stick more, and if you let an eyepiece dew up then anything on it at that point gets stuck on even more so I try to avoid letting them dew up also.

I use these too when I'm overhauling optics, very good. I also have microfibre cloths with me when out with the camera etc for the odd occasion when I need to clean things on the move. I currently don't get the scopes out when its windy as the fronds of flower/pollen carriers blowing off the oak tree behind the garden is something I'd rather not have to faff about dealing with, the fake grass in the garden is covered in that so a light bucket would for sure have gathered lots on the mirrors.

One way to clean the glass of course would be to simply dismantle the eyepieces and give then a nice wash in tepid water with some detergent, then follow with lens cleaner on reassembly. But that's not for everyone for sure and can be real fiddly with some of the tiny glass in certain models (old orthos etc). I've done this with a number of my old ones tho and taken the opportunity to black the edges while I had them apart.

[Second Time Around]

I'm always worried that any cloth could have a tiny piece of dirt or grit on it that could damage an optical surface.

So, like others, I prefer Zeiss single use lens wipes. These come in a sealed packet so you can always be confident that they're uncontaminated.

[Astro_Dad]

I remember one of the first things I read in TLaO regarding cleaning eyepieces was simply - Don’t! Although I think they acknowledged that this probably goes back to when coatings were more easily scratched - modern coating are more robust than those from years ago. Not that the OP is asking about this, but I enquired on this forum about the Celestron Lens Pen and similar - and the advice was a clear avoid here as well. I have the Baader Wonder fluid and their micro fibre cloth (used a handful of times) but I like the idea of single use wipes as @Second Time Around and others suggest, assuming the solutions used are non damaging. There is always  the risk of a tiny particle of grit being caught on the surface of even a soft clean cloth. 

Edited May 30, 2022 by Astro_Dad
Typo

[Elp]

I've got an eyepiece which needs a deep clean. I've taken it apart already and cleaned each of the 6 glass pieces with a micro fibre cloth to no avail, there's black specs on the glass surfaces. When you look at each piece they look clean but when assembled there's a fair few. I'm thinking it's black powder coat or whatever they used to coat the eyepiece barrel. I might take it apart and submerge each element separately in the Zeiss fluid to see if that helps.

[DaveL59]

2 hours ago, Elp said:

I've got an eyepiece which needs a deep clean. I've taken it apart already and cleaned each of the 6 glass pieces with a micro fibre cloth to no avail, there's black specs on the glass surfaces. When you look at each piece they look clean but when assembled there's a fair few. I'm thinking it's black powder coat or whatever they used to coat the eyepiece barrel. I might take it apart and submerge each element separately in the Zeiss fluid to see if that helps.

that's possible but are the lens edges blackened? Could be some of that paint has flaked off and landed on the lens surface too. I tend to use a black sharpie marker when I've done the edges black since it adds no extra width to the lens as some are a tight/snug fit.

[Elp]

2 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

that's possible but are the lens edges blackened? Could be some of that paint has flaked off and landed on the lens surface too. I tend to use a black sharpie marker when I've done the edges black since it adds no extra width to the lens as some are a tight/snug fit.

No, the edges are clear. The lenses also pop out quite easily but do not rattle when in the tube. There's also one or two spacer rings within the assembly.

[munirocks]

On 30/05/2022 at 19:46, Astro_Dad said:

I remember one of the first things I read in TLaO regarding cleaning eyepieces was simply - Don’t! .....

The trouble with that is that eyepieces differ from other components in the optical train in two ways. 1) They quickly collect eye gunk. 2) A little dirt on an eye piece can greatly affect the view. 

[Astro_Dad]

1 hour ago, munirocks said:

The trouble with that is that eyepieces differ from other components in the optical train in two ways. 1) They quickly collect eye gunk. 2) A little dirt on an eye piece can greatly affect the view. 

Yes agree- I think the authors were just trying to make a point and offer a note of caution - the rest of the paragraph as I alluded to above offers more context and explanation to why they wrote that - the extract you’ve pasted above ending in the word “Don’t” makes it read a little black and white! I’m sure we all clean our eyepieces from time to time - I certainly do (but only using the methods advised on this forum!). 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Astro_Dad

[Louis D]

I only clean the eye lens when it is apparent that shifting a star or planet around the FOV shows some areas are distorted due to smudges/gunk, or I accidentally put a fingerprint on it.

[Elp]

I tried cleaning the eyepiece by submerging the lenses and all spacers for a few days. It's better but still dusty, more white speckles now than black. It didn't help when putting the lenses back some wanted to go in lopsided, so I had to get them out and reseat them, I think that's where lot of the dust was reintroduced.