Every When Should i get my mirror cleaned

[Taff]

Hi' Just woundering i've had my scope for 6 years.Should i by now send the mirror away for cleaning Thanks.Mark

[Helen]

The wisdom seems to be that you don't clean it unless you can't see your reflection in it! I'm assured that with the right preparation and materials washing it yourself isn't as scary as it seems.

Helen

[John]

I washed my 12" mirror recently - it's only around 2 years old but had some dust and dew marks plus a finger print or two (not mine !) on it and I'm a bit picky about that sort of thing. With a bit of care it came up well - probably has not made any difference to performance though - mirrors can be quite dirty and still perform well.

John

[Taff]

Thanks for your reply.Mark

[blinky]

If you do decide to clean it, I went to the local tropical fish shop. They sold me a 10 gallon drum of Reverse Osmosis water, which is basically 99.999xxx% pure water. Apparently window cleaning companies use RO water as it leaves no streaks when it dries. Anyway.... I heated it up in the kettle, not hot just above luke warm (I live in Scotland so my kettle has no Limescale in it) and added it to a clean basin which had a towel in the bottom. I then added a couple of drops of washing up liquid and proceeded to soak my mirror for about 30 mins. Then I rinsed it well with the remaining RO water. It came up a treat and was nowhere near as scary as I imagined it would be.

[blinky]

Meant to say the RO water for £2, it cost me a fiver for the plastis reuseable drum!

[The Warthog]

Is it dirty? My scope has a few years on it, but doesn't need cleaning.

[ollypenrice]

I have a robust attitude to this now. I take out Sir Isaac's mirror (twenty inches and a bit lurid to handle) and give it a shower in tepid water. This rinses off the dust without touching. Then I soak it in distilled water, final rinse in distilled, and dry it upright, picking off the last drops with the corners of kitchen paper.

What you mustn't do is make any straight scratches on it. Don't make any curved ones either! But curved will probably not show. You could Google scope maker David Lukehurst for a more sensible approach. His site has a page on all this.

Sir Issac's mirror is fine, however.

Olly.

[Jarvo]

WhenI got back into this astronomy lark last year I dug out my old 6" newtonian reflector and founs it had a ring on dirt around the primary (God knows how it got that!

Took the mirror out and cleaned it up and it came up a tat. Would recommend it if you have a 14" RCX though !

I think Orion Optics do a cleaning service (They can also put Hi-lux coatings on as well.)

God speed to you!!!!!

Jarvo