Spotter Scope for Meade ETX 80

[S.A.M]

Hello SGL,

I have been helping out a newbie sort their new GOTO telescope out. During set ups we have to look a long the edge of the telescope to align the initial stars, this could still make these stars well out of view when viewed through the eye piece, using a spotter scope would make life a lot easier for doing the inital set up. We could remove the back cover and look through that but this does not help if the initial stars are near the zenith? I do not think a Telrad system would work as the telescope when packed up goes into a back pack, he wants to keep the telescope system easy to move.

Any ideas would be most grateful.

thank you for looking.

Peter

[Capricorn]

Meade did have a small right angle scope for their ETX-105's and I think the 90's. Just no idea if the 80 has the mounting holes for one. They are small finders.

Another option based on size would be a red dot finder.

You could possibly mount the base with double sided tape, then attach the finder and remove at the end.

This assumes that the base is unmovable in normal use and so maintains so form of alignment over several night usage.

[S.A.M]

Hello Capricorn,

I have not seen any holes on the ETX 80 for mounting a right angle scope, the idea of using a RDF with double sided tape sounds good, assuming I can find one with a base that can be detached.

Peter

[glowjet]

Baader do a very nice universal quick release finder base, available from FLO, screw or stick with tape/Velcro etc, but a bit on the expensive side though. but would make a nice strong fitting for an RDF with a shoe

John.

[S.A.M]

John,

Thank you for the advice about the quick release finder base, I will pass this info on to the newbie and will go from there.

Peter