Scope cleaning

[Layor]

Hi all,

I was out last Thursday, on one of the clearest nights for a few weeks, looking for the meteors. There were some spectacular sights but the bonus for me was seeing Jupiter rising above the eastern horizon. I pointed my CPC800 towards it and was rewarded with a great view, although a little fuzzy, and managed to see the banding and four of the moons.

My question is, was the fuzzyness caused by dirty mirrors and/or dirty lenes and if so how do I go about cleaning them. Or, is it wiser to get the scope cleaned professionally and if so, where is the best place to do so?

I live in Mid-Wales so I'm not really close to anywhere!

Cheers, Layor

[Moonshane]

I suspect your fuzziness was due to looking through more atmosphere as it was low in the sky. when higher targets are viewed, they look much sharper as you are looking through less 'murk'. Jupiter will be higher either later in the night or later in the year.

look at e.g. Capella at the minute, it's like a multicoloured disco light but is really a steady yellow i.e. when higher.

[Moonshane]

ps as for cleaning, I don't think it will be needed (per above) and I suspect it's quite hard to internally clean your scope given the style? others may comment on this though I have never had one.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I agree with Shane. The lower down Jupiter is when observed the worse it looks. Wait a while til it climbs higher up and the view will improve a lot.

[Steve C]

I caught Jupiter last night, fairly early on its ascent at approx 22:30. Although an amount of detail could be observed along with 4 moons it was overall a bit fuzzy on higher mag ep's.

I'm quite happy the fuzziness was in part due to prevailing atmospheric conditions ie lots of higher level air moving about & also the low angle of Jupiter.

As suggested, try looking at objects higher up that'll confirm whether your mirrors need cleaning although I very much doubt they will to be honest.

[Layor]

Doh! I forgot about the atmospherics:mad:

But thank you for the guidance, roll on winter:D

Never thought I'd hear myself saying that!!!

Cheers, Layor