Mirror Cleaning Miracle?

[ngcles]

Hi All,

Okay, I'm as nervous about cleaning telescope mirrors as the next person (well, it terrifies me actually) so it was with some interest that I followed up a recent posting on the Yahoo Group BigDobs forum for this product:

http://www.photoniccleaning.com/

That is in truth pretty expensive (particularly for those of us with large mirror surfaces etc) but appears on the face of it to be a superb and extraordinarily clever product that takes most (if not all) of the risk out of cleansing a mirror, while producing a better result than amateurs can possibly ever hope for.

Apart from cost, can you think of a downside to this stuff?

I guess it will remove a (stick-on) centre spot too (hassle)?

Could also be useful for when you want to long-term store an optic safely.

Has anyone here used it?

I'm thinking of buying some and giving it a lash ...

If it is good enough to clean the Hope Diamond ...

What do you reckon?


Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor AS&T

BTW, I have to connection whatsoever (including 3rd party) to the manufacturers, sellers or advertisers.

[Karlsson]

Never heard of this before, looks interesting though.... a bit like a brazilian wax job for mirrors...

Keep us posted on how you fare, Les!

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Les, I am very happy for YOU to be the guinea pig trying that new product. It does sound very promising, though.

After three attempts with The Mary Rose's mirror, I have become reasonably comfortable with the idea of cleaning a large primary mirror in the traditional way. My biggest anxiety is ensuring the az encoder does not get wet. Plenty of distilled water, and only a tiny drop of detergent, and Bob's your Uncle with the mirror.

At the end of the day, even if you were to scratch a mirror accidently while cleaning it, the effect in terms of loss of light gathering power would be so minor as to be entirely unnoticeable.

[Kokatha man]

Yes Les, it certainly seems from the spruik that it is a miracle clean all(most) substance. I think I've scoped through all the articles, I was wondering about coated lenses; but the brief comments on this matter seem to suggest it is safe there.

CCD and CMOS chips too - the only provisos I detected were the plastics warning, and the bit about not being able to remove water soluble contaminents: seems one needs to re-dissolve these "nasties" with a detergent type solution and then hit 'em with "wunda-peel"!

With a bit of presumption I would guess that quite a bit of the crud on AA gear, mirrors and lenses in particular, would be "water-fixed" even if not actually deposited as a dissolved contaminent (ie, condensation et al dissolves/sets crud on these surfaces.) This may mean the more elaborate cleaning procedure is necessary then.

All in all though it seems a miracle product: I note that the scope mirror in Hawaii is "trialling" the product, not endorsing it as yet; I guess quite a few people would be willing to wait to see how it pans out over trials and time before grabbing a bottle/can - I well remember the miracle of silicon spray that Telstra zapped everything with a decade or two ago now and for which we (the customers) are still paying for from its' corrosivity, the ensuing faults and still ongoing costs and problems associated with their mad blanket application to every electrical/electronic device etc they hit it with. Cautious optomism would be my thoughts - technology is producing amazing stuff - but let 'em test it on someone else's gear first is my mantra!

Regards, Darryl.