Quote:
Originally Posted by Hans Tucker
I really wish I could find the thread on Astromart by Roland Christen (Astro-Physics) that covered a lens recovery that was in a similar, possibly worse condition, to this lens. I believed it used Acetone, Prurosol and human saliva.
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Found it, posted back in 2009 on a AP 130EDF refractor that by looking at the images was in a similar condition. He used the following: Acetone, Baader Optical Wonder, Purosol, Balzer's Substrate Cleaner #2, Ultrajet compressed air, white Kleenex and Lint-Free Optowipes.
First step: Blow all loose dust and dirt off with compressed air or airbulb and soft brush.
Spray the surface with Baader Optical Wonder (once or twice as needed) and gently wipe clean with white Kleenex - use almost no pressure! This is followed by several applications of Balzer's Substrate Cleaner and one or two wipes with Purosol, all with Kleenex.
To get rid of the shiny spots, we have to use a magical cleaner, which is available at no charge to everyone. That cleaner is saliva. Rub the surface where the shiny spots are with your finger moistened with saliva (don't worry, the finger will never scratch the surface of the coatings because it is the most ideal cleaning pad available for delicate optics. No cleaning cloth is as gentle as the human skin.) This must be followed immediately by either Purosol or Baader Optical Wonder applied with Kleenex so that the saliva does not remain on the surface more than a few seconds. You may have to repeat this procedure a few times for stubborn spots, but eventually they will grow smaller and disappear.
The final cleaning will be a complete wipe of the surface with Optical Wonder and Kleenex, followed by a final wipe with Acetone using the lint-free Optowipes. The acetone by itself will not clean anything off, but it will remove the faint swirl marks that are left behind by the other cleaning agents. Why not use Optowipes all the way through? Basically only the last step needs to be lint free, so no sense wasting these precious cleaning wipes.