Mucky Mak

[+Stu]

Hi all. So now I have a Mak with a big shiny corrector. I know with Newts it's advised that you can get away with a fairly dirty mirror before it will have any noticeable effect, so cleaning should be kept to a minimum to preserve the coating. Is the same true for the corrector on the Mak? 

* Baader wonder stuff is the he only cleaner I use. 

[philjay]

I've cleaned maks, cats and fracs with lens cleaning fluid over the years with ne problems. Just be gentle with it.

[Nightspore]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Hi all. So now I have a Mak with a big shiny corrector. I know with Newts it's advised that you can get away with a fairly dirty mirror before it will have any noticeable effect, so cleaning should be kept to a minimum to preserve the coating. Is the same true for the corrector on the Mak? 

* Baader wonder stuff is the he only cleaner I use. 

 

You should be OK with Baader fluid (just remember not to do a Bill Clinton and (not) inhale too much of it lol). I agree with Phil, don't use too much pressure and you should be fine. I occasionally clean my fracs and Mak's with BWF, if there's dew debris build-up. I also use a Baader microfibre cloth. 

 

 

I have the same optic brush/lenspen as this bloke, and a Celestron.

 

Lenspen

Edited December 12, 2023 by Nightspore
must be Xmas

[+Stu]

@philjay @Nightspore

Cheers guys, I hate cleaning astro kit as I worry about damaging it. It's a fair way off needing it at the moment. The views I've had so far have blown me away, so want to keep it as pristine as possible!

[Nightspore]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

@philjay @Nightspore

Cheers guys, I hate cleaning astro kit as I worry about damaging it. It's a fair way off needing it at the moment. The views I've had so far have blown me away, so want to keep it as pristine as possible!

 

You should be fine, as long as you don't get carried away. I'm equally paranoid about cleaning eyepieces TBH. You can end up like this:

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Nightspore

[+Stu]

@NightsporeYou take the eyepieces to pieces?! No thank you!

 

[Nightspore]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

@NightsporeYou take the eyepieces to pieces?! No thank you!

 

 

Well, not normally, but I was curious to see what its insides were like. There again, I can say that for my neighbour's cat. After all; there's more than one way to skin a cat (allegedly).

 

 

These jpegs may date back four or five years when I was having some conversations with Bill Paolini on 'The Nutter Astronomy Forum aka Shouty Fights'. There isn't much Bill doesn't know about EP's. This WO (above) was borked anyway, so Bill suggested I sacrifice it for analysis & astronomical optical science. I can't quite recall what he decided it probably was. Possibly the illegitimate love-child of a Konig and an Erfle. Who knows? lol

Edited December 12, 2023 by Nightspore
cofveve

[+Stu]

35 minutes ago, Nightspore said:

There again, I can say that for my neighbour's cat

What's your beef with this cat? 🤣

I've got quite a lot of useful info from that forum but tend not to go more than a few comments down once the original topic has been abandoned and things start getting personal. Did you reassemble the EP and use it again?

[+Bino-viewer]

I've used BWF on eyepieces, but not scope optics. I would say its the default cleaning option for amateur stargazers.

It works a treat on eyepieces, but its not something i do very often.

 

Regarding the blue cloth. 

Don't let it get too dirty, and be tempted to wash it.

Once you've used up the 'clean sections' of it, i would then bin it, and order a new one.

They are around a fiver or so, but your optics, whether they be eyepieces or objectives are several magnitudes more in value, so don't take chances.

My £0.02

[+Bino-viewer]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

@philjay @Nightspore

Cheers guys, I hate cleaning astro kit as I worry about damaging it. It's a fair way off needing it at the moment. The views I've had so far have blown me away, so want to keep it as pristine as possible!

 

Pleased to hear the views have 'blown you away'.  I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, as i've often thought about getting one myself one day.

Orion optics new OMC 185 is on my radar.....

What was the Mak that you went for in the end ??  (sorry if i've missed the thread on that one)

 

 

[Nightspore]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

What's your beef with this cat? 🤣

I've got quite a lot of useful info from that forum but tend not to go more than a few comments down once the original topic has been abandoned and things start getting personal. Did you reassemble the EP and use it again?

 

I think the part of my 'lawn' (in my observatory/hide) which is used a lot for observing gets worn down a little by my big feet. To the cat it must slightly resemble a cat litter. So, in all fairness, he probably thinks it's OK. The little $#!T!

 

 

I tend to agree about the nutter forum. There's a lot of info to be gleaned, but it always seems to degenerate into a pub fight. I made the mistake of writing up a comparison review of four 2" diagonals once. All I did was to suppose the underneath of a TV diagonal, like Tak' diagonals, was possibly resin rather than metal (although I never claimed it outright) and all the nutters came out. Think villagers with torches hunting the 'monster'. They even tried to rope in someone who actually worked for TV. They were more impartial however and merely stated that the TV 2" diagonal was totally metal.

 

 

IIRC the 'exploded' WO was one of a pair I bought for my WO bino.

 

 

The 20mm SWAN EP's above are fine. However, I tried some of the other SWAN range and discovered that not all of them were particularly successful. So I sacrificed one or two of the pairs. Not many people know what make these eyepieces actually are. I believe the jury is still out on many of them. All nerdy fun I reckon lol.

 

 

As for the bino's .... I may be getting there ... slowly ... ROTFLMAO!

[+Stu]

@NightsporeThere's always the possibility that the cat is just a d##k, mine certainly is 😄 

[Nightspore]

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

@NightsporeThere's always the possibility that the cat is just a d##k, mine certainly is 😄 

 

He's a little duck alright!

[+Stu]

@Bino-viewer I picked up a used Meade LX85 M6. I've not had a "proper" session with it yet so it's not been cooled for long. It's just been testing really and getting the finder scope/quikfinder lined up. My only previous experience has been the 150PDS at F/5 and the Bresser AR90/900. So the planets have either been featureless bright dots or suffering from a fair bit of CA. Seeing them through the F/12 Mak at around 180/150x I was amazed at the cloud bands on Jupiter and how big it appeared in the FOV using the Vixen LV zoom. Clear definition between the bands and excellent colours! I'm going to have a go with my Baader moon and sky glow neodymium filter as that always seemed to give a bit more contrast on jupiter

[+Bino-viewer]

16 hours ago, Stu said:

@Bino-viewer I picked up a used Meade LX85 M6. I've not had a "proper" session with it yet so it's not been cooled for long. It's just been testing really and getting the finder scope/quikfinder lined up. My only previous experience has been the 150PDS at F/5 and the Bresser AR90/900. So the planets have either been featureless bright dots or suffering from a fair bit of CA. Seeing them through the F/12 Mak at around 180/150x I was amazed at the cloud bands on Jupiter and how big it appeared in the FOV using the Vixen LV zoom. Clear definition between the bands and excellent colours! I'm going to have a go with my Baader moon and sky glow neodymium filter as that always seemed to give a bit more contrast on jupiter

It sounds most excellent.

Enjoy the views 🙂