Mirror cleaning

Hi Dave
You could always go for the silver service as advertised here for 384 USD to make the 14 better than new!

Quote...
“Our silver service will make your telescope new again or your new scope even better. We will disassemble, clean and re-align all aspects of your telescope OTA.
Includes:
Total disassembly of optical tube assembly, cleaning and inspection.
Professional cleaning of primary & secondary mirrors as well as corrector plate using First Contact™.
Replacement cork & paper shims with new materials.
Careful re-alignment of optics & shimming to dead center.
Re-lubrication of SCT primary focus mechanism.
Bench collimation of optics.
Star testing & final collimation.

www.opticwavelabs.com/mechanical.html

Unfortunately, I think the shipping costs would be prohibitive and the paperwork for customs a right pain in the a**.

If your astrometry/photometry work is unaffected using the 14” as it is then I would leave well enough alone.

Clear skies
Mike

dmcdona wrote:

I have, on occasion, cleaned the corrector plate (with some nifty and expensive AstroPhysics cleaning solutions that Jeff kindly bought for me plus their supplied lint-free paper-like squares) and know of the trauma involved.

#
These are probabily isopropyl alcohol based. If you look up on the web, they advised never to use these on mirrors, only on lenses.

Dave_Lillis wrote:

dmcdona wrote:

I have, on occasion, cleaned the corrector plate (with some nifty and expensive AstroPhysics cleaning solutions that Jeff kindly bought for me plus their supplied lint-free paper-like squares) and know of the trauma involved.

#
These are probabily isopropyl alcohol based. If you look up on the web, they advised never to use these on mirrors, only on lenses.

Aye, you want to get rid of greasy fingerprint smudges, not an aluminium coating! :silly:

Dave - actually they're not alcohol based.

Astro-Physics sell the kit - but can't ship abraod (chemicals). Thye're designed for sure for lenses (including lens coatings) - not sure about mirrors but I wouldn't use it on the mirror - they're only very small bottles (60ml each).

One is called "Optical Wonder" from Baader Planetarium (possibly available in Europe). The other (for more stubborn stains, dirt etc) is called "Optical Molecular Lens Cleaner" from Purosol.

As I say, they're sold by AP for cleaning lenses so I'd only use it on the glass corrector - not the mirrors - just in case. But it *is* fine stuff. The wipes included feel a little more like paper than cloth - but they are completely non-shedding. Thye're pretty absorbant but when you use the fluid, you use a very tiny squirt of spray (they're both spray bottles) and that's plenty. They'd probably last a lifetime. Though I have also used them on the glass plate over my CCD in my imager. I'll probably use it on my filters too if they look particularly grubby (I am in fact getting quite a few dust motes on my images and I know from the size of them that it is from the filters so they are due a bit of a wipe).

Anyhow, I'll leave th primary (the secondary is fine) unless it becomes a bigger problem.

I must also say that the Opticalwavelabs stuff looks very impressive - thanks for that Mike. That could be a runner when the OTA starts to really become "old". Though you'd have to weigh up the cost of a new OTA WRT to the gold service...

Dave

I got this stuff:

www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_inf...-Cleaning-Cloth.html

www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_inf...-Cleaning-Fluid.html

Excellent - well worth getting.
The bottle of fluid will last ages.

Michael.

Michael - yes, that's one of the fluids in the AP kit. So we *can* buy that in the EU. And like yourself, I can attest to its quality and very probable longevity.

I'd be interetsted in the cloth but need to brush up on my German

Dave