Cleaning of the Newton telescope
As we all know the optical system needs to be clean to provide very sharp and contrast image. All the small ‘dirties’ and dust affects to the image quality and reduces it.
If we use our telescope for night observations or astrophotography then the dust is collected on the optics in time. To get the best of our telescope we have to clean it sometimes. It is very important that we do that very carefully because we won’t be able to repair any of the scratches we may do during the cleaning.
Today I’ll give you some important information how to clean the primary and secondary mirror of the Newton type of the telescope.
Before we do anything we have to prepare some things we will need during the cleaning:
- Clean kitchenware that is larger at least 50% then diameter of our primary mirror fulfilled with warm water and a bit of detergent
- A clean towel
- Distilled water (approx. 1L)
Disassembly:
First of all we remove the primary mirror. We unscrew the screws which holds the cell of the primary mirror in the tube (Picture 1):
Picture 1
When we do that we carefully (!) remove the cell of primary mirror. There are different types of primary mirror holders so we have to figure out how to remove the mirror from the cell (Picture 2):
Picture 2
The disassembly of the secondary mirror is easier. We just unscrew the screws in the spider and that’s it. Just make sure that you are holding the secondary mirror all the time with one hand while with the other you are unscrewing. Otherwise it may happen that the secondary mirror falls to the floor and broke up.
Cleaning:
When we are sure that we removed all the parts which holds the glass we pick the mirror (Picture 3) and put it into the kitchenware with warm water. We just let it in it for some minutes. After that we grab it with both hands and starts moving it left and right in the water and all the dust will just flew away. We are doing that for some minutes. If we can still notice a dust on a mirror we can remove it by soft circle movements on the glass, but be careful here! Everything you should do in the water (Picture 4):
Picture 3
Picture 4
When we are sure that there is no longer dust and dirt we take the mirror out of the kitchenware and wash it with a distilled water over the bath. After that we don’t touch the mirror surface anymore. We just put it on a towel and let it to dry.
The same procedure we repeat with the secondary mirror (Picture 5). Anyway, it is not necessary that we remove the mirror from the holder because often it is glued to it.
Picture 5
After both the mirrors are dry we assemble the telescope back. We just need to be careful to make everything just in the back order we disassemble it. If we have done everything OK then our optics is prepared again to provide the best image quality!
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