What is this please .....

[ChrisR36]

I recently acquired this piece of equipment from a second hand shop. I know it's some type of viewfinder that sticks to the side of the scope, but I don't know what exactly it does, or how it works. There's a compartment for batteries, so I guess there's a light, but for what purpose I don't know.

Can anybody enlighten me, or point me to a website that can tell me more about this thing? Does it have a name?

Thanks for looking, and here's the pic:

[Lorne]

Its a Telrad finder. put batteries in and you will see 3 circles, representing 4, 2 and 0.5 degrees of sky. useful for star hopping.

[Whippy]

Looks like a telrad to me...

Tony..

[John]

Thats a Telrad finder. It appears to project 3 red circles against the night sky and you use those to point your scope. It's an alternative / complimentary to an optical finder and the best one around, in my opinion.

You mount the base onto the scope using double sided sticky pads. The narrower end points forwards (toward the sky).

[John]

Here is some more info:

Telrad finder

[Nexus 6]

Ha, the very thing I have been looking to buy to go with my recently bought 6" dob, apparently Telrads are a bit hard to get hold of at the moment, I have been browsing the web checking but not many astro dealers state if they have items in stock like say Telescope House who are indeed out of stock.

[Dai150PL]

Hi Chris its a Telrad, have a look at this - http://www.astromag.co.uk/pdfs/telrad.pdf

[Dai150PL]

Wow 5 Replys in 3 minutes need to type faster.

[ChrisR36]

Thanks for all the quick replies and the links ... I'll check those out right away.

[yeti monster]

Looks like a frog in an icecube to me....

[umadog]

ROFL!

[JamesM]

I thought it was a tabbogan for a mouse complete with windshield (..no wipers!) . No seriously, as others have said it's a Telrad and a very useful bit of kit. The Rigel quickfinder works in a similar way but is smaller.

James

[acey]

Manufacturer's instructions:

Company Seven | Telrad, Inc. Telrad Sight for Telescopes

[bombassa]

It's a tel... oh you guys already wrote that.