Way more than you ever wanted to know about anti-reflective coatings
I was reading about AR coatings and found this article may be a little dry and overly technical, but it does go into a lot of detail that may possibly be interesting or useful to those that are so inclined.
haha i love that stuff!
being an optician for 38 years i have seen all the advancements in multicoating, albeit in the latter years on all of the opthalmic plastic indices
pat
1. They have microscopic pores which allow water molecules from the air to get in between the coating and the glass substrate. End result is small pieces flake off. This is often visible with aluminium mirror coatings after several years. Wash only when its really necessary.
2. Thermal shock - the result being that the coating will either start to craze (fine hairline cracks) or possibly pieces flake off the glass substrate entirely. With coated spectacle lenses, putting them in hot water (out of a tap) is enough to trigger this. With astro objectives and correctors, I'd have to say go easy with the hairdryer as a means of removing dew, you may find the coating suffers as well.
3. Whatever is in DEET and Aerogard insect repellant will cause permanent damage to coatings. Use a roll-on, or if you must use a spray, do it downwind of all the scopes and nowhere near your eyepieces or camera lenses.
