On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, Paul wrote:

> In the book "Turn Left at Orion" authors Consolmagno and Davis' advice
> on lens cleaning is "Dont, don't, and don't." They say that even a
> single, gentle cleaning with a high quality cleaning cloth and fluid
> will damage delicate lens coatings and "your eyepiece will never be the
> same again." If this is true, it's a bummer! Do you agree with this?

It is easy to damage the coatings on eyepieces, but lenses and other
optics do get dirty and do need to be cleaned - even the large
professional telescopes are cleaned every couple of years!

I would suggest that you read an article from the Sky and Telescope web
site. It details how you can carefully clean your optics. The page is:
http://www.skypub.com/tips/telescopes/cleanoptics.html

Happy cleaning!

Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams

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