[Chaos-l] Cleaning your telescope

[Jayme Hanzak]

Hi Miles, 

If the mirror has a lot of dust on it, you may want to pull the mirror out of the back of the telescope. There is usually 3 screws holding it in. 

Once you have the mirror out of the telescope, this is what I have done with good success. 

Turn on a faucet to a steady gentle stream, not blasting. place the silvered surface into the stream to wash away the loose dirt on the mirror. Using real cotton, the type in a first aid kit, very gently wash the remaining small particle dust off of the surface while the surface is in the stream of water. You do not want to put any pressure on the surface because you don't want to drive any dirt into the silvered coating causing a scratch. 

When you see that all of the dirt is off, use a small can of compressed air the gently push the water droplets off of the silvered surface. You can then use a paper towel to set the mirror on to let it dry the rest of the way. Then you can put the mirror back into the back of the telescope and recolimate the mirror The same process would work with the secondary mirror, the mirror that angle the light through the eyepiece, if it needs it. 

The general rule of thumb is, don't clean it unless it REALLY needs it. 


Jayme Hanzak 
CHAOS President 

CHAOS 
P.O. Box 3001 
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0842 
http :// www . rtpnet .org/chaos/ 
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