finder scope - alternative and on the cheap

[nicks90]

just thinking about the absolutely awful red dot finder useless thingy thats on my celestron.

it really is absolutely horrendous. A real chore, a neck breaker, a pointless waste of earths resources. So it needs to GO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!

Now i've seen a picture on here of someone that took the guts out of it and jammed in one of them small finders - 6x30 type effort - into the hole. I have one of them finders on my little 70mm frac, and its only marginally less useless than the red dot finder! Plus you still have the gymnastics required to use it when pointing towards the zenith.

So i was stood there looking at the scope and noticed the OTA rings has a piggy back mount on one of them for attaching a camera and I had a possible light bulb moment!

I presume that most cameras and spotting scopes etc all have the same thread width and pitch so they can be attached to generic camera tripods and stuff? If so, is there any reason why I cant pick up a nice cheap second hand small 50mm spotting scope off ebay and just screw it on to the piggy back mount - align it against a convenient star and use that instead? Seen quite a few on ebay, 20x50 with 45 degree eyepiece (helps reduce spotter scope gymnastics!) for less than £15.

yeah, I know they will be junk - but its gotta be better than a flippin awful red dot finder or midget finder scope! And with a mag of x20 should be fairly useful for getting the job done.

Am I barking mad or would it offer a suitably 'yorkshire' type finder upgrade?

cheers

nick

* being Yorkshire means tight fisted and cheap!

[Spec-Chum]

True Yorkshire is making one yourself while wearing your cloth cap whilst your whippet watches.

[Islander]

Take a deep breath, crowbar your wallet open, using penetrating oil if necessary, and buy yourself a Telrad.

[andyman]

true yorkshire is robbin one flat cap over your face while your greyhound keeps lookout

[ianfiat]

Just treat yourself to a Telrad (£35)

My older telescope is a celestron astromaster 76, with the red dot finder on it I struggled to find dim objects like the side of my house or the moon! I quickly bought a Telrad and I still use it on my go to telescope as it makes doing the alignment far easier.

I find spotter scopes OK if you're vaguely in the right area, but they can be difficult to relate where they are in relation to the sky.

The Beauty of a Telrad is that you look through it directly onto the sky without magnification so you always know exactly where you are.

Last week I was struggling to perform the three star alignment with my scope, so I restarted after fetching the Telrad and it was a breeze.

PS I'm from Bradford!

[Carbon Brush]

I was born and brunged up in Yorkshire.

My favourite finder is a 50mm right angle.

I did make a full recovery from the expenditure in only 6 months.

But it is not everyone's choice.

It only needs buying once though.

[ianfiat]

Ask for a Telrad for Christmas?

[andyman]

i agree you cant beat a telrad

[nightfisher]

i agree you cant beat a telrad

you can, but they break if you do

[acey]

Everyone has their own preference depending on their style of observing. My own preference (with a 12" dob) is the supplied 50mm straight-through finder plus a low-power eyepiece in the main scope to get to the exact spot. Plus a good map, of course. Personally I've never had any use for unit-power finders but that's just me.

A spotting scope would work fine as a finder. In the past I've used an 80mm astronomical scope as finder but it had a 90-degree mirror diagonal meaning it gave a left-right reversed view - different from the view in the main scope and not good for map reading. I also used one half of a pair of 7x50 binoculars - that worked fine, giving an upright non-reversed view, which is what you'd get with a spotting scope.

So my only advice would be to make sure you're getting a view consistent with what you see in the main scope, not a reversed one (it will in general be rotated by a certain amount but that's not an issue). Whether you magnify or not is up to you.

[nicks90]

Christmas is being absorbed by eye pieces!

I think I might give a cheap spotting scope a go - as I can always use it for bird watching when I go camping if it doesn't.

Rebel finder will have to wait a few months / accrual of wifely Brownie points!

[Rumpelstiltleg]

Just bought a Telrad but not used it yet, Saturday hopefully. Has anyone used the Telrad finder charts? Are they any good and did you have to import them from the States?

Mike

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ianfiat]

You can find them on the net

eg

http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html

[acey]

You can find them on the net

eg

http://www.atmob.org...aps_jsmall.html

Or you make your own by drawing three concentric circles of the appropriate size on a transparency. The Telrad has circles of diameter 4 degrees, 2 degrees and 0.5 degree. Find the scale of your map, let's say it's 1cm per degree. Then the circles would be 4cm, 2cm and 0.5cm. The S&T Pocket Atlas has Telrad circles drawn inside at the right scale so you can just trace them and use that with any chart in the atlas. Though personally I've never found the need to use that kind of aid for field of view - I just judge it by eye in relation to whatever map and eyepiece I'm using, and that works well enough.

[Chris]

Take a deep breath, crowbar your wallet open, using penetrating oil if necessary, and buy yourself a Telrad.

lol god that made me laugh:D

Although I like Nicks idea for a DIY finder, lots of fun to be had trying little mods out:)

[Rumpelstiltleg]

Hi Ianflat,

Just downloaded the maps from the net. Thanks for the tip. Telrad want nearly $40 for the set.

Mike

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[nicks90]

another option i have is my little toyshop 70mm frac - thats attached to the silly table top tripod via the same sized camera thread!!!

had a quick go this morning and the frac screws on to the piggy back on the ota ring perfectly. I havent tried aligning it yet, but i;m sure it will be there-abouts. Nothing a shim jammed between the locknut and foot of the frac wont cure. Plus the frac has a 45deg field correct thingy on it to, so less finder gymnastics nearer the zenith.

And it gives me a brilliant excuse to buy a nice 32/36mm widefield eyepiece!!! In the little frac, that would give x10 mag - perfect. I can obviously also use it for widefield views in the newt, giving a mag of x25

as a side note, i used my frac with the celestron eps to have a look at jupiter to compare it to the views i was getting in the newt - and i have to say it was actually a tiny bit sharper/contrasty at higher mags (x2 barlow and celestron 10mm SP) which surprised me! Just goes to show how even a small cheap refracter can be quite pleasing if half decent eps are used.

[Alfian]

Hi Nick,

Commiserations on RDF, some people manage with them, But I couldn't. I wasn't sure how the Telrad would fit on my Celestron - so went with the smaller footprint Rigel Quickfinder.

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

Pretty much the same price as Telrad. When I first got it I though it was a lot of money for something a bit plasticky - but its quite sturdy really and importantly - it WORKS! Really easy and good to use - can't imagine using a scope without one. Assuming the Telrad works as well I'm not surprised everyone raves about them.

On the Yorkshire bit - I'm an off-comden of over 30 years and I've had whippet. Got a greyhound now and live somewhere over t' moors a bit from you. I know my place - but still glad to be here!

Get money spent - tha'll not regret it.