finderscope question

[johnny diamond]

cant understand why having fitted a telrad or red dot finder

people appear to keep the finderscope mounted is it just preferance or nessasary for deeper sky object's

[Jiggy 67]

I think its just an extra precaution. Once you've got the object by other methods, its good to centre it visualy with the finderscope before moving to the main scope

[Moonshane]

a Telrad / RDF is a x1 magnification tool and therefore you can only see the brightest stars and locate the naked eye targets. this is fine for things like M31, orion nebula etc but there are few naked eye targets when there's any light pollution.

therefore I find initial placement with the telrad and fine tuning with a 9x50 right angled finder works best for me. it also allows finding bright doubles and planets etc at higher powers without having to change eyepieces. e.g I can find brighter doubles at 300x magnification with the eyepiece staying in the focuser when using both types of finder.

[Tinker1947]

I keep my finder scope on there cause it looks good, the Telrad does the work. The extra weight really doesn't matter atm, when Autoguiding comes along then it will be removed.

[johnny diamond]

thought that might be the case,im planning to purchase a telrad or simalar, and was going to sight it in place of the 90x50

but will have to rethink the siting position maybe with a riser in place!

[imarcs]

I find it very difficult to find anything even in a finderscope unless i am convinced that i'm looking at the right place. The RDF does that for me.

Edit - Which is exactly the same as what Moonshane says - oops.

[johnny diamond]

so if my deductions are right i should be looking for a telrad with 4" riser for comfort

before i buy does anyone think there is a better item available by othier makers ???

[Moonshane]

I think the Telrad is better but I also have a Baader Skysurfer 3 which is pretty good. it's just a dot though, no circles. very light and has a height of 4.5 inches above the tube wall on a standard finder shoe. I am taking off the telrad base on my 6" and using the SS3 instead; just works better on that scope. have used it on my school astro astro club's 8" dob and worked a treat.

[rory]

the rigel finder would require no extra riser plate , and its a bit cheaper and well regarded.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/rigel-quikfinder-compact-reflex-sight.html

just noticed on flo site, telrads are on the agenda, and at a much better price than some dealers. nice one f.l.o

[twotter]

I removed the SW 9x50 finder and fitted my red dot finder in it's place. My local light pollution can't be that bad as I've not missed the old finder, nor had problems finding targets.