How to clean my DSLR mirror?

I bought Nikon D3100 few months ago.last week i noticed some dust particles clogged on the mirror(I cud see the dust from view finder, but my image was clear with out any dust particles). Then i tried to clean it with the blower but failed. Then I tried with a brush which i bought with the cleaning kit from Jessops(£5 kit). Sadly instead of cleaning, that brush even more messed with the mirror. I think few hair(2 strands) from the brush is now sitting on the mirror. Or worst case brush might have scratched the mirror coating. My concern is, how do i clean the mirror in this situation? If I take pictures now, will it damage the sensor as well?

It's best to take your camera to a Professional. You don't want to do additional damage to it.

If you really must clean mirrors you do it very very carefully. The reflective surface is exposed - rather than behind glass with normal mirrors - and very easy to damage.

I'd be wondering if the dirt is really on the mirror anyway, more likely on the viewfinder screen - look above the mirror when the camera has the lens removed.

I'd buy some compressed air cleaner - it is just air in a can - and try that.

As long as the mirror is down then the sensor should be protected. The risk with damaging the mirror is that it could interfere with the exposure metering.

Hey Martin, what's the problem with an air can? I've seen people cause damage to a mirror with cotton buds. I agree the rocket blower is a good call, but what could the problem be with air in a can?

Every Owner's Manual for an SLR or DSLR has a section titled "Care & Cleaning" that contains the following: WARNING! Do not touch the surface of the mirror as damage may result. Had you bothered to read that you would have known better than to try cleaning the mirror with a brush.

The person who suggested using canned air certainly lived up to their screen name - 'just another idiot'. A bulb blower brush maybe but canned air can easily blow dust particles into places inside your camera where they can really cause damage.

DON'T USE THOSE CANS OF COMPRESSED AIR! You might ruin your camera.

Get a large, rocket blower / a small, soft, artist's paint brush and a cotton bud.

Only use the rocket blower on the sensor itself. Nudge and poke dirt on the mirror / in the viewfinder with the soft paint brush and the cotton bud if it can't be blown away. Loosen it and then blow it away.

Additional - You don't use cans of compressed air because if you hold the can at slightly the wrong angle it will spray a jet of freezing freezy stuff. It's so cold it will burn flesh, as we used to do in play fights as young engineers. The sensors can't handle such a temperate (or such a sudden temperate) and will freeze, shatter, etc… Compressed air that's gone all freezy will ruin your sensor. You might also blow debris with the compressed air stream with such force at your sensor that it'll shatter or pit or crack. You could break any part of your camera with excessive force not in particular the mirror, you'd have to be a real ham fisted Shrek to break the mirror with a soft artist's paint brush or an ear poking cotton bud, but then I know a Shrek who busts her lenses and bodies simply by changing lenses as they are intended to do.

Added - The stream of freezing freezy will burn flesh, blind, freeze lungs if you're huffing it to try and get high and so on.