Cleaning a mirror

RMOLLISE wrote:

Cerdic wrote:
I borrowed an Odyssey 1 (16", I think) telescope from my school. I
started looking at some stars and Mars and noticed that the telescope
seemed badly out of collimation (it was collimated before leaving school, I
figured the transport changed that). Well, collimation still seemed ok,
but I found that the mirror is extremely dirty.

Is there a good way to clean the mirror? Can I just pop the back
open, take the mirror out, and clean it with a water/isopropyl alcohol mix,
or is this something I shouldn't mess with?

Hi:

The Odyssey I is a 13.1" scope (the next size up, the Odyssey II was
17.5"). At any rate, _leave it alone_. You won't help anything and will
possibly do major damage to a scope that doesn't belong to you.


OK, folks, from just up the road from Uncle Rod - I find myself with
a dirty mirror on a classic Odyssey 10", courtesy not of the local
flooding occasioned by a burst washing-machine hose, but from its
cleanup. While I was away giving a final exam, the cleanup crew
ripped up three rooms of carpet and pad, and left ten industrial-
strength driers blowing across wet particle board. Also while I was
away, their breeze caught the dropcloth ove rthe 10", blew it away,
and put a substantial layer of, well, particles on the primary.
I was initially worried about the stuff being abrasive, so I
took a while using blown air (the only canned air I had has too
much in the way or propellants), clean cotton balls, and eventually
alcohol and distillled water. No visible scratches, but I do still
have some crud. Is my best plan (once all the cleanup is finished...)
to bathe it in a distilled water/alcohol mixture, or what?

Bill Keel