Cleaning Your Microscope
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Cleaning Your Microscope
Is it OK to blow your objectives and eyepiece out with "canned air"? The kind you use on computer equipment. How about every-long-once in a while cleaning the lenses with lens cleaning solution? I would never use either of these on my digital camera bodies or lenses. But, microscopes don't seem to have the small, easily damaged parts camera equipment does. How do you keep your microscope clean and the dust at bay? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.
Bill
Using canned compressed air is fine if it is gently released. The nozzles of these things can harbor small particulates though, particulates that may come loose from the nozzle or tube can be propelled like a bullet bouncing off of your lenses, I suggest prior to pointing the nozzel towards your lens, release a bit of the compressed air first to dislodge any hazardous particulates. Find someone you just can't stand and point it at them. As for cleaning fluids, I recommend distilled water only. Things like glass cleaners or even some of the stuff you get from optical supply stores contain solvents that may remove the optical coatings from your lenses and thus ruin them. Never use cotton swabs, the ball of cotton on the end is raw or unfinished cotton and it will act like an abrasive. As for cleaning cloths, I have used and still do, a piece of clean white cotton tee shirt and I rub it gently over my eyepieces and objective lenses when they require cleaning and the piece of cloth is kept in a clean plastic sandwich bag and it is used for absolutely nothing else and by the way, never "dry" clean a lens. Always lightly moisten the lens by breathing on it or applying a bit, not a lot, of distilled water. Then gently rub dry.
I only read somewhere that the ball of cotton on the end of those swabs was abrasive, raw cotton contains silica, I believe, and the article said that it would scratch surface coatings and possibly glass lenses. Anyway, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure they say and microscope optics are expensive.
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An excellent publication can by found by Googling for "Carl Zeiss" "The Clean Microscope". Copies are posted at several places on the web.
The "official" one at zeiss.com is currently at this url.
--Rik
The "official" one at zeiss.com is currently at this url.
--Rik