Cleaning advice.

Yip, thanks all, just as I thought,
I'm only going to use a proper lens cleaning brush and let that be that.

Thanks.

Hi Frank,

You need.

a: Distilled Water (ask the chemist)
b: Good old fairy liquid.
c: Surgical grade cotton wool (ask the chemist)
isopropy

You also need somewhere you can place the ota so the corrector plate points dont get wet a big sink usually does.

I have only cleaned my old 8" sct once since I got it 13 years ago. I got an orion lens cleaning kit from BC&F and cleaned it with that (lens tissues, special fluid and cotton buds). You are welcome to borrow it.
(After watching Tony O'Hanlon clean his corrector plate with a hankerchief :shock: , they are probably not as delicate as is made out-not that I would dream of doing such a thing) .

Guys, I'd be very wary about using iso-propyl alcohol at all - unless the dirt is REALLY glued on. I have cleaned a coated lens with iso-propyl before and it did *horrible* things to the coatings, leaving a lot of smearing and a very frightening blue opalescence over parts of the lens. I believe this was due to residues in the alcohol itself rather than it directly damaging the coatings. Gave me the willies when I first saw it and took a lot of very careful washing in distilled water to remove it.

Dave Gremlin is right - only use surgical cotton wool... and lots of it. Swab once (while rotating the swab off the lens) and chuck it away for a new swab.

Phil.

use iso-propyl alcohol and cotton swabs

Wooooaaahh! Hold it there Dave, don't cotton swabs have very small fibre glass particles in them? I was always told to stay away form cotton swabs as they will tiny scratches your plate....

I remember some years ago I had a 6" mirrir, and used cotton swabs to clean it, and indeed it did leave some small scratches behind, maybe just cleaning with the fluid and a good old lens cleaning cloth will do instead?

Keith..

yip, you're dead right, I inadvertently omitted "surgical". that's what I use.

Guys, I'd be very wary about using iso-propyl alcohol at all - unless the dirt is REALLY glued on. I have cleaned a coated lens with iso-propyl before and it did *horrible* things to the coatings, leaving a lot of smearing and a very frightening blue opalescence over parts of the lens. I believe this was due to residues in the alcohol itself rather than it directly damaging the coatings. Gave me the willies when I first saw it and took a lot of very careful washing in distilled water to remove it.

Dave Gremlin is right - only use surgical cotton wool... and lots of it. Swab once (while rotating the swab off the lens) and chuck it away for a new swab.

Phil.

There are differing concentrations you can get from the chemist, get the purist you can get.
I've been cleaning my corrector on the 12" using this stuff with no issues thankfully.
Having said that, my scope is not UHTC so I don't know how that type of coating is effected, if at all.