I
never clean my eyepieces - even with a lens pen- unless I've first used the blower. Then the brush. Then the blower again. Then as Malcolm said using the cleaning fluid on a cotton bud. If there's dirt on the edges that's still there, the lens pens gets there nicely. And I always start cleaning with the fluid in the middle and work my way out (less chance of excess leaking into edges).
If there's still a smudge there- breathe on it (pure oxygen) and wipe away which I find quite effective. Also the lens pen is good at getting out persistent smudges I've found.
When I first started cleaning them, I was so nervous, shaking like a leaf lol. And then I realised, hey like glasses, they can't be *that* sensitive to cleaning surely. And if I damage it, I just buy another one
. It's amazing after realising that, how much confidence I have now and I actually now get to enjoy eyepiece cleaning day- having special one on one time with my babies
.
Read this, it's a great article:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-344-0-0-1-0.html
I use
this from Bintel- they make it up especially.