Hi all,
Hope the Refractors" forum is a good place for little junky refractors as well as for all the good ones!
Regarding my 60mm alt-az "Jason":
A week ago I pulled off the objective, and carefully marked both lenses, rinsed them off with tap water and light cotton balls, and gave a final rinse in 70/30 alcohol, let dry and replaced. It did clean off the crud, and the images are still pretty decent. However, bright objects appear very-slightly "hazy-ier" than they before at higher powers. At 100x, I don't notice any difference. Previously, this little scope could do OK at 200x, and now that is where i notice the haze.
Question: did I ruin it by doing the above cleaning?
8O
2 possibilities in my mind are that i over-tightened when popping lens back in.
Also cleaned the little barlow lens, so that could be where its coming from too.
I'm wishing I had just blown off the lens with some air or something and left well enough alone.
I have enjoyed this scope, despite its small aperature, and don't want to junk it. so I'm seeking your comments and advice.
///
My current junk plastic focuser needs greased badly. Last night it was pretty chilly, and the thing almost wouldn't budge. The gorilla-snot grease froze up and did not help my viewing session. I suppose I should disassemble and go with some white lithium grease for improvement (right?).
If the lens is still ok, I'm leaning towards fixing up the focuser with a 1.25 one so I can get some better EPs.
I'm pretty sure I can see Titan, using averted vision. Does that sound impossible with a 60mm achromat? Guess it could be a background star, but it is appears to be in the same plane as the rings and just looks a lot like a moon.
Thanks, and happy stargazing!
Jaron
