Clean RC10 as a whole without disassembling?

[lowsfer]

Currently it's not too dirty. But sooner or later I'll need to clean it.

I wonder if it's possible to clean it without disassembling?

What I intend to do is to put the telescope in a filled bathtub for a while. Then give it a shower inside, possibly with a soft pipe for the secondary. After that, flush it with distilled water. At last, quickly dry it using a hair drier without heating, to reduce rusting.

Would that cause any problem?

[Joshua Bunn (Joshua)]

Can you give us a little more info on the telescope, like who is the manufacturer, thanks.

[lowsfer]

Originally Posted by Joshua Bunn

Can you give us a little more info on the telescope, like who is the manufacturer, thanks.

It's a GSO steel tube rc10.

[Joshua Bunn (Joshua)]

I would advise against giving your scope a bath, I assume you know then that there are no electronics onboard, but I think you comment bellow...

Originally Posted by lowsfer

to reduce rusting.

....is the operative word. It's going to rust... still. I doubt you would be able to remove all the water. It will get behind the secondary and in all sorts of places.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

This guy washed his DSLR in a tub of water, so can't see a reason why you couldn't do it

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lrdkFXsr5Us







PS - don't do it. Video is a joke.

[Paul Haese]

Short answer is no you should not give your telescope a bath. How dirty is the primary? It has to be very dirty before you need to remove the mirror and give it a wash. I gave mine a wash late last year after about 3 years and only because I was changing over the rear plate to the new rear plate. I would not have bothered otherwise.

It is easy to clean the mirror. Putting it back together will require some skill though. Might I suggest you wait until the mirror is really dirty and then make sure you buy a Tak collimation scope for collimation.

I could start a service for collimating these scopes though.

[gregbradley]

I am not 100% sure how this applies to your scope but I thought I would post anyway.

I have a CDK17 truss. I can lift the lycra scope shield off and poke my head up into the scope.

I angled the scope down so any water runoff would flow out of the tube onto the ground.

I got a garden sprayer and used filtered pure water. I first blow the mirror with a hurricane blower to get rid of any loose grit.
Then I sprayed the mirror thoroughly and pumped up the sprayer so it had a bit of pressure.

I then daub the mirror gently with tissues and change often to get rid of grit etc.

Then I wiped it dry gently with white unscented tissues and lots of them. Don't wipe hard, don't wipe very far. Turn the tissue over and change wipes often.

That cleaned it up nicely. In my case and commonly, the mirror has a silicone 2 overcoat and is quite tough. You are not acutally touching the mirror coating. These GSO mirrors though are a plating so you'd have to check how tough they are and if they are easily scratched.

In the past I have done a wash like that and then Bintel cleaning fluid (its really good) and lots of tissues.

Only clean when its really bad. A bit of dust doesn't affect images much.

Greg.

[Logieberra (Logan)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

... I gave mine a wash late last year after about 3 years and only because I was changing over the rear plate to the new rear plate. I would not have bothered otherwise...

[Bit unrelated. Paul. Been meaning to ask- did you remove GSO12"RC primary from cell and break the seal of black goop? If you did, did you re-affix in cell with something to stop lateral movement? Or are you now operating with no goop and just primary clips? Cheers]

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

......That cleaned it up nicely. In my case and commonly, the mirror has a silicone 2 overcoat and is quite tough. You are not acutally touching the mirror coating. These GSO mirrors though are a plating so you'd have to check how tough they are and if they are easily scratched.....

Greg.

The GSO mirrors are over coated Greg, so they are well protected. When I washed mine it came up nicely.

Originally Posted by Logieberra

[Bit unrelated. Paul. Been meaning to ask- did you remove GSO12"RC primary from cell and break the seal of black goop? If you did, did you re-affix in cell with something to stop lateral movement? Or are you now operating with no goop and just primary clips? Cheers]

Yes I had to cut mine out from the old cell as it had the extension of the mirror cell which would not go through the new rear plate.

I refixed it with aquarium grade silicone and installed the mirror clips so that those were about the thickness of paper above the mirror. The primary baffle holds the mirror in position and the silicone stops lateral movement. All are needed in the design.

[Logieberra (Logan)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

... Yes I had to cut mine out from the old cell as it had the extension of the mirror cell which would not go through the new rear plate ... I refixed it with aquarium grade silicone ...

Excellent. I expected as much. This shows in your small, round star shapes