Cleaning eyepieces and finderscope

[Sconesbie (Scott)]

Good morning.

A couple of questions and to see what others do in these scenarios:

- Cleaning eyepieces. I've noticed a little bit of residue/dust/something around the rim of the lens of my eyepieces and filters. More like a ring really. It doesn't impede my viewing although I don't like the look of it (no pun intended). There isn't a lot of it. Is it easy to clean?

- Finderscope blurry. I have taken it apart and had a look at all the lenses and glass pieces and can't see any imperfections. I have washed it with cotton bud and warm soapy water, rinsed and air dried. The blurry part is around the object as I look through the finderscope. I can still see through it but it's very annoying. With bright objects like Sirius and Jupiter it's bright enough to see but I am more concerned about trying to centre less bright objects.

[dannat (Daniel)]

cleaning ep is easy, televue among others have a guide -I usually use windex & a cotton bod, circular motion

sounds like your finder is not in focus, most cheaper ones have a plastic ring you undo & move the eyepiece or objective slightly-which model do you have?

[Sconesbie (Scott)]

sounds like your finder is not in focus, most cheaper ones have a plastic ring you undo & move the eyepiece or objective slightly-which model do you have?[/QUOTE]

Ah, that could be it. Thank you. It has a ring which unscrews and you can move the main lens in and out. Although if the ring isn't screwed all the way in, the lens slops and doesn't hold tight. The telescope is Skywatcher black diamond collapsible dob. Picture attached. I'll have a look at that tonight.

[MortonH]

Originally Posted by Sconesbie

sounds like your finder is not in focus, most cheaper ones have a plastic ring you undo & move the eyepiece or objective slightly-which model do you have?

Ah, that could be it. Thank you. It has a ring which unscrews and you can move the main lens in and out. Although if the ring isn't screwed all the way in, the lens slops and doesn't hold tight. The telescope is Skywatcher black diamond collapsible dob. Picture attached. I'll have a look at that tonight.[/QUOTE]

I had the same issue a few years ago and had no idea the focus could be adjusted until someone showed me!

It's quite easy to accidentally defocus it again while you tighten the ring but with patience it's not difficult.

[MortonH]

When cleaning eyepieces be careful not to use excess liquid otherwise it might soak inside the eyepiece, unless you have waterproof ones like Explore Scientific of course.