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Red dot finders..?


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With a Red Dot finder, a red led 'dot' is projected onto a clear glass (plastic) lens, that has no magnification.

When you look through the Red Dot finder, you are looking straight through the clear lens, at the sky just with the 'naked eye', and in the centre of the clear lens, the red dot will be seen superimposed against the sky.

One the finder is aligned with the main scope, its simply a matter of moving the scope until the red dot is aligned with a star, which should then also be centered in the main scope.

The advantage of the RD finder, is that its quick to align on a naked eye star. However, if the star is less than, or borderline naked eye, then the RD finder won't help you, whereas a 8x50 finder scope will show these stars.

Some people, me included, have both an RD finder, and an 8x50 finder scope on their main scope.

Hope this explains it ok.

Dave

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i find a red dot finder much easier to use for aligning a goto scope, which is all id ever use a finder for.... helps to see the whole region of sky rather than just whats in the field of view of the scope for me.

Same here , with the red dot finders you can only see the reasonable bright naked eye stars - like the alignment stars in the Sky Scan GOTO system. Makes it easier to pick the correct star - because you cannot see the others ;)

With a non GOTO a 30 - 50mm ( or more) aperture finder is essential.

The only problem I find with my red dot is the dimmest setting , for the projected cross ,is not dim enough.

John

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I use a red dot finder on my refractor, and it is so well aligned that when I look at the moon, I can choose the part of the moon I am going to look at. It also puts me dead-on planets and other bright objects. On my reflector I have both a red dot finder and a 7x50 RA finder. The red dot puts me in the general area of a faint fuzzy, but the 7x50 allows me to see it well enough to manoeuvre it into the fov of the ep.

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I live in London, and a red dot finder is pretty much pointless here.

My first scope had a 6x30, and that wasn't much help either...the 8x50 works nicely for my environment.

If you have sky pollution, and are using the rdf for anything other than basic goto alignment, I'd consider a good optical finder.

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HI, Skysplitter

I find that they are easier to use than the straight thro finder,

mainly because i need my glasses on to see the stars

and both eyes to open together to align up the scope,

with some of the awkward positions i find my self in, i end up

not knowing what i'm looking at

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