Telescope Diagonal Cleaning Guide - How to safely clean the MIRROR!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- Do you have a telescope diagonal that needs a good cleaning? Your telescope diagonal mirror is one of the most precise surfaces on the planed and requires special care!
This is an in-dept guide on how to SAFELY clean your mirror diagonal!
Buy on Amazon to Support AVT-Astro:
Cotton Balls: amzn.to/31dOOtt
Precision Q-tips: amzn.to/3NJzY2D
Cotton Pads: amzn.to/48sCnr7
Air Blower: amzn.to/32Tb4ZZ
Zeiss Cleaning Solution: amzn.to/3G0NuZs
Optical Cleaning Brush: amzn.to/3H75XGk
Get AVT Astro Gear and Apparel: avt-astro.com/...
My Blog full of great Astro content/reviews: www.avt-astro.com
![How To Clean A Telescope Mirror: The Step By Step Guide [ 8" Reflector Telescope ] by Reflactor](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wtc53Br_96g/mqdefault.jpg)
I found dish soap,flowing water and a finger would do the job perfectly.Get the mirror wet first,then wipe the wet mirror gently with a finger with some dish soap on it,after wiping the entire surface rinse the mirror.Dish soap is the key,it clean all the smudges and prevent the coating from damaged by finger.I even clean my much fragile metal-coating mirror with this method.
I have heard of this method before. Never tried it. I really think it depends on what trade your in. If you're a Carpenter or mechanic ect you might not have soft enough/Clean enough fingers to do this.
I keep mine capped Vlad. I even use a plastic zip-lock bag to keep a 1.25 diagonal in because I needed its cap for my 102mm SW Maksutov as I lost the inside cap that is held by the screws for holding the diagonal. If you cut the airflow down on your compressed air in a can by putting a bigger tube over the little one you're less likely to blow something loose. I would think twice before using an air compressor because some of them may collect dirty water and you don't want that in your diagonal.
I use alcohol and purified water with zero dissolved solids for cleaning my optics, depending on what I'm cleaning. I put a dielectric 99% reflectivity 1/10th wave secondary mirror on my 6" reflector with a 1/12th wave and .98 Strehl primary mirror. You better know I keep that mirror protected as best I can as I don't want to have to remove it to clean it. I have a long plastic tube for blowing it off.
Yup, good idea to keep it from getting dirty in the first place!
Getting high off that open container of rubbing alcohol? 😆 Great instruction. I didn’t know about those shims. Probably would have messed mine up without this vid. Thanks!
Lol, you know it! Yeah the shims are probobly the most technical part. Well now you know👍
Excellent video! So informative and so well presented. I always wondered what I would do when it got to the point where I needed to clean my diagonal. No need to worry about that now. 😊
Glad to help!
Thanks a lot for sharing knowledge.
Glad to help!
Thanks Vlad. I've never had to clean any of my diagonals. I keep them all capped at both ends and blow them out with a bulb blower after each session.
Thats the ideal situation!
Thanks!
Thanks a lot for the Super, really apreciate it!
Great tips, as usual. 👌
Thanks a lot Vlad.
Greetings from Spain.
My pleasure! Thanks for the nice reply, I hope you have better weather in Spain then us here in the NW! Been cloudy and raining for like a month.
Good timing - there’s a bit on one of mine. Do you ever clean your Meade #647 flip? Their instructions say don’t clean (That Baader click looks nice). Nice laser gizmo.
Well the reason they say not to clean it is that that you really need to pull the mirror to clean it without damaging the surface. I have not cleaned my #647. Not sure how easy the mirror is to take out of that one and alignment might be more of an issue since it's a moving mirror. I would not attempt to clean past what I did on diagonal #2.
Vlad this might be a strange question a bit off topic but what is your impression of the white Baader diagonal? I have one, one of the newer ones (your's looks like it is older) and I compared it to a Tele Vue everbrite and the everbrite showed a better image under high magnification. Some guy who commented on one of the major astronomical equipment websites said it was no better than a normal diagonal. I did not think anything of what he said until I made my comparison.Maybe the everbrite is just that good.
Generally, the Astrophysics and the TeleVue diagonals are considered the best. I honestly would need to compare them side-by-side to really tell which I have not done. I currently have the AP Maxbright, TeleVue Everbright, Baader, Denkamire, APM, and Badder prism diagonal.
Might be a fun video to compare them all!
@@AVTAstro Yes I would agree! When you say you have the Denkmire are you referring to the Vernonscope 1/20th wave or am I confused?
It's this one: www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/30346220/the-denkmeier-sct-powerswitch-diagonal-with-filter-switch