That's the nice thing about "old school" methods. In a Newtonian, you can remove the mirror from the telescope, and submerge it in tepid water. Soaking it for a while loosens up surface contaminates and most can then be washed away without actually touching the surface. Worst case, a little tender cotton-ball action takes care of the stubborn stuff, but even then there is a "lifting" technique you need to learn to minimize abrasion. Tough to do with a SCT or Mak corrector on a commercial scope. Or a Newtonian mirror glued to it's wooden cell, lol. On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi all, I did clean it, but I was exceptionally careful and did not detect any scratches, even using my magnifying glass. After the plate was dry I used a camel-hair brush and a soft t-shirt to git rid of grit, brushing very lightly. Then I cleaned the with something called Shield Lens Cleaner, a set of pre-moistened towelettes. They are advertised for "scopes, binoculars, cameras." Whether I actually did harm the optics I won't know until I use the telescope again, but I feel pretty good about it. I can't see any damage to coating or glass. Thanks, Joe