Cleaning the ToUcam CCD chip?

[iceman (Mike)]

Hey guys.

I noticed some dust donuts on my preview screen while Saturn was whizzing past on it this morning..

I'm not sure if it was the barlow or the CCD chip, i've cleaned the barlow tonight and it was dirty, hopefully that's all it was.. but if it turns out to be the ToUcam CCD chip, how should one clean this delicate object? And where does one purchase the required implements?

Your advice appreciated!

[gbeal]

Ice,
it will be on the front surface of the chip I guess.
I wiped mine carefully, but I recall a thread on CN's about this as well a while back.
Gary

[mch62 (Mark)]

Ice I used a camera lens brush and blower and then put my IR filter on and don't remove it .You should have a fairly well seal unit then.
Mark

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Ice, check out this page

http://www.sbig.com/pdffiles/Cleaning%20CCDs1.pdf

Short, sweet and to the point. Yes its for sbig but I'd imagine if its good enought for a $10000 sbig then it would probably suit a ToUcam

Cheers
Paul

[iceman (Mike)]

haha too true Paul.. Thanks for the link, sounds pretty good..

What's isopropyl alocohol and where do I get it from?

I've got some lens cleaning stuff I bought from BigW camera section, and it already has a brush and blower in 1 that I use to clean my eyepieces and binocular objectives. I wonder if that will work?

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

*Don't Do It* You may damage the ccd coating with propriatory lens cleaner. You can get IPA from a chemist. Its fairly common. Make sure its 100% IPA or as close to as you can get.

Be careful using the cleaner (BigW) on your lenses. I've collected quite a few sites on cleaning optics. I'll see if I can find them and post a couple of links

Paul

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Its a bit of a complicated formula but you might want to check out the optics cleaning link here

http://www.arksky.org/index.htm

or this one

http://www.astro-tom.com/tips_and_advice/cleaning_optics.htm

Though in the last he contradicts himself by saying "don't use alcohol" then procedes to give a formula for cleaning using IPA

Also check out his "Ten Comandments of Astronomy" You may not have come across it before.

http://www.astro-tom.com/tips_and_advice/ten_commandments.htm

Cheers

Paul

[mch62 (Mark)]

If it is only dust try to blow it off before using a cleaner.
Us a cleaner if you have put grubby marks on it.

[beren]

Bintel sells the same formula Paul gave the link to , its called UTHC cleaner {for Meade or other SCTs corrector plates-not sure if its suitable for newtonian mirrors} if you want to forgo the mixing ritual.

[Conus]

Hey, Ice. How's it going? Finally got around to joining your forum. Saw your new Jupiter at CN and it reminded me of your site. Nice shot, btw.

I've just been using Zeiss lens cleaner and a Q-tip and it seems to work okay. At least until the next donut shows up, and they always do.

[iceman (Mike)]

Hey Steve, thanks for signing up and saying hi.. Your images have improved in an unbelievable way in the last month, so your expertise and advice will be valuable!

I ended up using the can 'o compressed air and just did several bursts on the chip.. i've only imaged once since then (xmas holidays and not having the laptop), but they were definitely gone..

Do you use an IR filter?

[Conus]

No, I don't use an IR. I've heard from a couple of people that they only really help on Mars. I may get a cheap, clear one though. It might be worth it just to keep those donuts away.

Speaking of donuts, lately several of the CN people have been using the freeware program Virtual Dub to delete the bad frames before importing into Registax. You can hand-select frames in Registax, but it's a lot faster with Virtual Dub.. You just use the right arrow key to move through the avi, eleminating the fuzzy frames with the delete key.