RedCat Maintenance, what do you do? - Forums

Topic starter

Jan 12, 2021

What type of maintenance are you doing on your RedCat? I just cleaned my lense today as it was just full of dirt and outside air particles. While this is a great time of the year to shoot, there is also a lot of homes in my area that rely on wood stoves to keep their homes warm.

I followed the following YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RVeuK0daF4 and used my new Christmas gift https://www.amazon.com/Altura-Photo-Professional-Sensitive-Electronics/dp/B01FWI3W40/

Engaging

Claudio Tenreiro

Jan 12, 2021

Yes, good point, and more than that, how to clean the lens on the rear, which also get dust. The Petzval design implies that this lens is quite close to the ring or place for the adaptors. Illuminating the lens I can see a lot of dust, which is no easy to access (but not so complicated either) and I believe needs some cleaning as well. I will use some Zeiss pre moistened lens cleaning wipes.

Joey Troy

Topic starter

Jan 12, 2021

Claudio Tenreiro:
Yes, good point, and more than that, how to clean the lens on the rear, which also get dust. The Petzval design implies that this lens is quite close to the ring or place for the adaptors. Illuminating the lens I can see a lot of dust, which is no easy to access (but not so complicated either) and I believe needs some cleaning as well. I will use some Zeiss pre moistened lens cleaning wipes.

Claudio,

If you tear it down you should post some images of how you did it. I pulled off the rear Nikon bracket and it looks really clean as I always have on the lens cap or my camera connected so it doesn't get my exposure to any elements.

Lee

Jan 12, 2021

So far, it's just the rocket blower (bulb blower) I've used on my RedCat - the visible lenses - front and rear. It seems to be a bit of a dust magnet at the front, but I don't see any shadows in the flat frames... yet. Yours is looking good @Joey Troy

Claudio Tenreiro

Jan 12, 2021

Joey Troy:
If you tear it down you should post some images of how you did it.

Yes, I am going to do it again, so I will take a picture of the lens with dust (they are tiny particles but they are clearly there), and the cleaning process.
Right now I am having a bit of an issue with my flats in the SpaceCat, so I am doing a few things, but is a good idea to have documented in pictures. I maybe having some dew on the camera...so nasty rings are in the pictures and hard to remove with flats. This is an example of the problem https://www.flickr.com/photos/80831869@N00/50810322013/

Joey Troy

Topic starter

Jan 12, 2021

Claudio Tenreiro:
Joey Troy:
If you tear it down you should post some images of how you did it.

Yes, I am going to do it again, so I will take a picture of the lens with dust (they are tiny particles but they are clearly there), and the cleaning process.
Right now I am having a bit of an issue with my flats in the SpaceCat, so I am doing a few things, but is a good idea to have documented in pictures. I maybe having some dew on the camera...so nasty rings are in the pictures and hard to remove with flats. This is an example of the problem https://www.flickr.com/photos/80831869@N00/50810322013/

Wow, I wonder if that is dew? Living in NM we are in the desert so I don't have to worry about condensation or a dew heater at least not yet as our average evenings are about 18.7F and humidity is always around 30% or lower.

Claudio Tenreiro

Jan 12, 2021

Well, that is my hope, I am close to 3 rivers and humidity here is an issue all the year around, temperatures at night go easily to 11C in summer time (so, close to 52F) and over 70% of RH. In this conditions the cooling of the camera can enter in the regime of condensation in the front window. I am checking that these days. I used to go down to -15 from the room temperature.
I want to make sure that all the optic train is absolutely clean, so cleaning techniques are interesting, without damaging any coatings.

I do remote imaging from NM and the only issue is that, sometimes, temperature can go really low, so the gear do not like that so much.

Joey Troy

Topic starter

Jan 12, 2021

@Claudio Tenreiro yeah that kit I linked to has a really good solution. It is Alchohol free, Ammonia Free, Odor-free, and streak-free. It's listed as all-natural whatever that means lol it does state on the back of the product "USES: Specially formulated to effectively and safely clean all sensitive optics camera lenses and sensor". Hence why I purchased it and $17 bucks can't complain too much about that. Nice that you're coming over to NM to shoot. What part of the state are you shooting at? And yes it does get cold here something you wouldn't think to say about a desert state.

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Claudio Tenreiro

Jan 12, 2021

I do it from home, the scope is at SkyPi observatory, it belongs to Insight Observatory and I am an external user, it is fantastic.
Yes, it is an issue the composition of the cleaning liquids, I saw only Celestron giving instructions to clean their scopes (refractors and eyepieces), WO is not very helpful at this.

Joey Troy

Topic starter

Jan 12, 2021

@Claudio Tenreiro That is very cool about SkyPi! Yeah, I was going to say if you were coming to NM to check out the Cosmic Campground if you were driving in https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/sanctuaries/cosmiccampground/. Yeah WO doesn't have many white papers on anything it seems, it's a good thing the RedCat is so damn nice

Tim Hutchison

Jan 13, 2021 · Edited: Jan 13, 2021

Generally, it is my understanding that you should avoid cleaning until it is absolutely necessary. However, if you have determined that you do need to clean your optics, this is a great solution.

http://www.photoniccleaning.com/default.asp

The product is a liquid polymer that you apply to the optics and let dry. Once dry it easily peels off taking all of the dust and grime with it. I have used it on the corrector of my SCT, on the objective of my Redcat, the objective of my Takahashi refractor, and on all of my filters. It really works well. I have used it many many times and it has never given my a single problem.

Start with one of the kits.

Tim

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Claudio Tenreiro

Jan 14, 2021

Ok, I promised some pictures, this is one of the rear lens, showing the dust particles. You must illuminate with white light and as tangent as possible to see ti, if you just open that part you will not see any dust, but illuminating...it is different.