Cleaning your gear

[jjjnettie]

What do you use to clean your scope and ep's?

[ballaratdragons]

A Maid!

[jjjnettie]

Funny Man

[asimov]

G'day. Here's one. http://www.aoe.com.au/care_and_maintenance.html

[jjjnettie]

Good O,
Thanks for the link John.

[vindictive666]

i use isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds for my ep's

only when the ep's require cleaning :)
my mirrors arent bad enough to warrant cleaning

i use mr sheen on the OTA

:thumbsup:

[dhumpie]

I do the same as John. For lightly smeared lenses, I just breathe onto the lens and then use cotton buds and cotton balls. I have not had the need to clean my mirrors yet.

Darren

[asimov]

I've never cleaned a main mirror, to be honest. I'd rather see dust. A bit of dust won't affect anything. Unless it's a 1/4" thick!

[fringe_dweller]

Make sure the cotton balls/buds are pure cotton - not the cheaper ones that contain cellulose - Q-tips are great for little jobs - i think they are always pure cotton? with the pure cotton balls/buds - keep changing them constantly with every gentle swipe/circular motion as to avoid scratching the glass with picked up dust particles - i use a quality camera camel hair blower brush to first get rid of the bigger dust particles - before going in for the fine clean if it is still needed. breath on surface is the best first as was mentioned - stubborn sticky oily/greasy gunk like eyelash goo on ep's definitely needs the isopropyl alchohol (pure isopropyl evaporates and leaves no residue) - with cleaning primary mirrors and big jobs like that only use demineralised water for washing - not tap water, too hard harsh/salty leaves a residue - and a tiny micro dot of dishwashing detergent as well - avoid cleaning to often as it might eventually degrade/dissolve/speed up oxidisation coatings (especially with isoprpyl and ep's) and as John said fine dust is no big deal on primarys as it only actually covers a small amount of total surface area - i have seen reflector primary mirrors totally covered in accumulated dust with no discernable degradation of image.
There are lots of webpages on this subject - just google - like http://www.nexstarsite.com/OddsNEnds/CleaningOpticsGlass.htm
Kearn
PS anyone know were to get bottles of pure isopropyl? my old ancient little bottles of tape head cleaner have emptied - and of course no hi-fi/audio shops carry head cleaners/isopropyl anymore - my mate has a large bottle - but i want my own

[mick pinner]

a 100mil bottle from a chemist will cost you about $15.00. 99.5%.

[fringe_dweller]

Thanks Mick! :) I hadnt thought of that!? LOL
Kearn

[fringe_dweller]

LOL Just did a search using the forums search and looked down the bottom of this page at the similar threads - and there is heaps of threads with great links and advice on this subject :)
Kearn

[asimov]

GOOD pick-up kearn! LOL

[Sausageman]

I used to have a file on my puter all about cleaning mirrors and lenses, do you think I can find it now?
I also had a file for collimating the Tasco 4.5, can't find that either.

We use IPA all the time at work, it comes in 20 litre drums.
How many should I "borrow" LOL
I could make a fortune undercutting the chemists..... :D

Mike

[fringe_dweller]

Unfortunately I dont think you can put dangerous/flammible chemicals in the mail?? :( oh well, you could become very (even more?) popular at starmeets Mike!!