I use tap water and dried, filtered compressed air to finish the job. BTW, the Al surface is surprisingly resilient. It will take a fair amount of rubbing before you have any significant damage. Still, the best rule for cleaning telescopes is - DON'T. Keep them clean and and covered and you won't need to clean them. Deb - yes, the central obstruction in a SCT will also foil the detail. The rule says that anything less than 15% is as good as you can get, but I prefer even less. This is one reason why long focus reflectors are great. The best images I have seen are through doublet refractors. The APO designs I have seen are not as sharp, although they are still very good. My 10" f10 newt with a .875" secondary and no spider gives really nice images too. Some of the nicest planetary views I have seen have been through this scope. Brent --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Distilled water costs a lot less than grain alcohol and leaves no water spots. It is also not flammable and you don't need to worry about the Home Teachers seeing it. ;)
I wash and do a first rinse with tap water.
The final rinse is with distilled water.
C.
--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Everclear is as pure as alcohol as it is possible to distill. For non-drinkers, that 200 proof means it is 100 percent alcohol. I think it evaporates without leaving a trace, but of course it's highly explosive. I have used it to clean antique daguerreotype plates. That is, once I have gently rinsed off the dust with water, then distilled water, I flow Everclear over it so that it evaporates without leaving water spots on the beautiful, highly polished silvered plates. -- Joe
Joe Bauman science & military reporter Deseret News bau@desnews.com (801) 237-2169
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