"Mark Smith" wrote in message
...
OK. I learned the first lesson months ago when I got a little dust on
my nice C9 1/4 SCT and asked for cleaning advice.

Don't Clean Your Telescope until absolutely necessary.

This has turned out to be good advise, but I think I may be taking it
a bit too far.

I understand this advise for the corrector plate, but does the same
apply to the eyepieces? They get handled a lot more often, have eyes
pressed near them, and basically seem to get dirtier faster.

I wear Eyeglasses and know how much sharper things are right after a
good cleaning (which is rare because I know they are just going to be
dirty again in a half hour).

Is it OK to clean my eyepieces more often? I'm careful with them and
they stay clean, but after 8 months of use, some of the most commonly
used ones could really use a careful cleaning. I'd never let any of
my photographic lenses get one 50th as much crud on them as my
eyepieces have.

Mark,

Eyepieces do tend to get dirty, especially for those of us who use them at a
lot of public star parties. My philosophy has been to check them on a
regular basis, and clean the ones that look dirty. Public observing turns
up fingerprints from time to time, and you do not want those to linger on
your eyepieces.

Clear skies, Alan

BTW, if you are invited to a country fair, don't let them set you up near
the cotton candy franchise.