Is this lens dead?

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

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.

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.

[jasonh]

Thanks Hans, thats good information for me,obviously coming from someone who has had some experience with optics

I will give it a go when the scope is back with me and see what happens.

Out of interest, did that thread come to a conclusion? Did it say how the other scope turned out?

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by jasonh

Thanks Hans, thats good information for me,obviously coming from someone who has had some experience with optics

I will give it a go when the scope is back with me and see what happens.

Out of interest, did that thread come to a conclusion? Did it say how the other scope turned out?

In the words of Roland "pristine like the day it was born"
and the images he posted testified to the cleaning process.

I wonder, as a test, if you wet your finger with saliva and gently rub a spot on your lens whether some of the spot will be removed.

Also, have a look at the attached instructions.

[Regulus (Trevor)]

This looks like the end result of fungal growth which may have developed from the spiders droppings and it destroys coatings.
There are a number of optical business in Australia that do various kinds of lens polishing and coating. Someone like Longman Optical in Hobart do flourite coatings etc. See their web site here:
http://www.longmanoptical.com.au

Good luck. The glass is to good to waste.

Trevor

[Exfso (Peter)]

I would say that lens is cactus, it looks one helluva lot like my TOA130 looked after someone sprayed insect repellent in the general vicinity of my scope at Snake Valley a couple of years back. That ate into the coatings, I needed the lens replaced, or in my case the whole cell.

[rally]

Link here to Roland's thread

http://www.astromart.com/forums/view...post_id=657351

First 4 posts have photos attached.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Bummer ..
I made the same mistake years ago with a 70mm celestron achro , I used commertial isopropyl alcohol and it ate into the coatings , exactly like you have here ,, So its a TAK ? .
Hope this helps , you have to find out what he used to clean these optics with .
Sorry to be the one to say ,, but as the old saying goes ....
Dont touch any optics unless you know what you are doing , I learned that the hard way , even tho it was a way cheeper scope .
Good luck.
Brian.

[bojan]

This looks like fungus to me.
Try with vinegar (100%) - I managed to clean fungus from one lens completely, with no traces left. It will not damage the coating or glass.

[dannat (Daniel)]

i saw the btter pic you posted on CN -definitely looks like growth

i used vinegar followed up with acetone to clean up some old bins, my advice is to use a fairly wet cotton ball/q tip/lens tissue - the drier the scratchier

[dazastar]

Originally Posted by dannat

Talking of saliva, I know of 2 very exp bino users/cleaners that finish there bino cleaning with hot breath always with a eyeglass lens cloth, it removes all cleaning marks apparently

Hot breath works even better after eating pepperoni and chilli....lol

[leon]

This is just MHO, but I would just replace the Objective, I have seen a Canon 500mm F/4 bounced on its head and it smashed the front element, one looking at that lens would say it is stuffed, but no, it was sent to Canon and the front element was replaced, and at a reasonable cost i might add,

Maybe this is possible in this case.

Leon