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Need a Finder Scope


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So I'm a newbie and bought a very new scondhand 12" dob that only had a Rigel. I bought 2 EP's 25mm and 12mm and a 2.2x barlow. Now I can have lots of fun with this but I really want to look for DSO's and I now think that a 10x60 Finder scope would assist my fun. I was recommended an Altair 10x60mm Right Angled Illuminated FS which is about £169. Now it looks the business and reviews well and just wanted some alternative opinions on this and similar scopes. And, just to have confirmation that I'm not just buying (once I break the news to my wife) a shiny thing for the sake of it (and what's wrong with that I hear you say?).

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A Telrad is a lot cheaper and a lot easier to use, once set-up and you have star hopping under your belt, couple of minutes and you will be looking at the faint fuzzy'es......download Stellarium and the Telrad maps these make it so easy....

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Hi, so are you saying there isn't any need for a Finder Scope? My Rigel has the telrad rings (2 & 0.5) degrees but its difficult when you move away from the naked eye view starting star and straight to my 25mm. E.g. M82 all I can do is to draw a line in my head from the UMajor bucket stars outwards by roughly the same length but that's it there are no more (in my LP syies) interium starts to my naked eye, this is where I thought a finder scope would help? Or am I doing something wrong?

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Hi.

I have both. A Telrad for alignment and star hopping. Alignment without it would be a real pain. It's also great for getting quickly on target with the planets.

I've also got the Altair 10x60 RACI you are looking at. I finally got it for taking DSO shots as the GOTO on my scope is sometimes not accurate enough to get on target. With the Altair on a dark night you can see the brighter galaxies like M31, 81,82 etc and the RACI makes it a doddle to move the scope on target. The illuminated crosshairs help get onto fainter objects, but I have found it unreliable. It often cuts out and the design is a bit of a botch. One leg of the LED is just expected to make contact with the aluminium casing which offers a poor connection. I've improved it with a little piece of copper tape.

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So are we saying that Telrad users don't use or have a Finder Scope also? Can you go from a Telrad/Rigel straight to your say 25mm EP and locate DSO's like that? I'm thinking of DSO's that don't sit right next to a well defined star that is in naked eye view?

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I use a telred for general orientation and to locate a particular star then use the RACI (Right Angle correct image) finder to star hop. However I first use 10X50 binoculars to familiarize myself to the star formation or pattern that has the DSO in it or in the vacinity.  I  use my binoculars all the time, kind of figure it as a sort of training exercise to learn star patterns associated with the DSO I'm targeting. Then when I look in the RACI finder the star patterns are the same as what I have been used to as it has the same field of view as the binoculars. It works for me. 

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So are we saying that Telrad users don't use or have a Finder Scope also? Can you go from a Telrad/Rigel straight to your say 25mm EP and locate DSO's like that? I'm thinking of DSO's that don't sit right next to a well defined star that is in naked eye view?

You can if you are good at star hopping and it's dark enough to see the fainter stars ;) If not, then you need a finder IMHO. 

When I first got my scope it had a straight through 9x50. Looking through it I saw a myriad of stars and got overwhelmed by it all being a newbie. As the standard 9x50 is not a RACI, moving scope to the right position was not intuitive either. So I got a Telrad and life got much easier :)

However, even with GOTO I found finding DSO's accurately enough for taking pictures difficult with the Telrad. So I bought the Altair 10x60 to supplement the Telrad.

So now I use the Telrad to align the scope and find planets and the 10x60 for DSO work.

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I use a telred for general orientation and to locate a particular star then use the RACI (Right Angle correct image) finder to star hop. However I first use 10X50 binoculars to familiarize myself to the star formation or pattern that has the DSO in it or in the vacinity.  I  use my binoculars all the time, kind of figure it as a sort of training exercise to learn star patterns associated with the DSO I'm targeting. Then when I look in the RACI finder the star patterns are the same as what I have been used to as it has the same field of view as the binoculars. It works for me. 

Hi yes the BINs usage does seem to make sense as I found that looking in the Bins made the star patterns beside the starting star jump out. I'm hoping that the finder being a similar xMag will give the same feel only steady. I do agree that the rigel is very good at locating the scope to the general area or right on the Planet (Mars/Jupiter are easy when its calibrated). If I have one issue with the Rigel its the fact that I can't calibrate it during the day i.e. can't see the circles? But in short I think I need a new shiny thing also. 

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You can if you are good at star hopping and it's dark enough to see the fainter stars ;) If not, then you need a finder IMHO. 

When I first got my scope it had a straight through 9x50. Looking through it I saw a myriad of stars and got overwhelmed by it all being a newbie. As the standard 9x50 is not a RACI, moving scope to the right position was not intuitive either. So I got a Telrad and life got much easier :)

However, even with GOTO I found finding DSO's accurately enough for taking pictures difficult with the Telrad. So I bought the Altair 10x60 to supplement the Telrad.

So now I use the Telrad to align the scope and find planets and the 10x60 for DSO work.

I don't have a GOTO but find the Rigel very good at getting spot on the target stars or Planets. So you can also say your happy with the Altair 10x60?

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I use a telred for general orientation and to locate a particular star then use the RACI (Right Angle correct image) finder to star hop. However I first use 10X50 binoculars to familiarize myself to the star formation or pattern that has the DSO in it or in the vacinity.  I  use my binoculars all the time, kind of figure it as a sort of training exercise to learn star patterns associated with the DSO I'm targeting. Then when I look in the RACI finder the star patterns are the same as what I have been used to as it has the same field of view as the binoculars. It works for me. 

this although I don't use bins for astronomy normally.

I'd be lost without my 9x50 RACI (about £50 used) unless using a very short focal length scope.

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ps, the rigel is just as good as a telrad for initial placement which if you have a raci finder is all you'd use it for. I also have a baader skysurfer 3 which is very good if you need to keep weight down for balance (bear this in mind re the 60mm 'fancy' finders. they are heavy).

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ps, the rigel is just as good as a telrad for initial placement which if you have a raci finder is all you'd use it for. I also have a baader skysurfer 3 which is very good if you need to keep weight down for balance (bear this in mind re the 60mm 'fancy' finders. they are heavy).

Absolutely. Luckily, balancing a 12" dob is easy. I've got hold of a utility belt and some 500g gym weights. The belt simply straps around the primary end and I put as many weights as needed into the pockets of the belt. Whole lot only cost about £25 :)

post-28556-0-30223300-1397733005_thumb.j

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ps, the rigel is just as good as a telrad for initial placement which if you have a raci finder is all you'd use it for. I also have a baader skysurfer 3 which is very good if you need to keep weight down for balance (bear this in mind re the 60mm 'fancy' finders. they are heavy).

Yes I see its 1Kg in weight, the person I bought if from had this  (Altair 10x60) FS on the Dob. Actually he had an EP he showed me that seemed to weigh more that that! 

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It works really well. The belt is adjustable to get a nice tight fit. I got it from Amazon for £12.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00D48130Q

The pockets are all removable. The weights I use with it are basic 500g flat gym weights. http://www.bodyactive-nation.co.uk/epic-fitness-tri-grip-cast-iron-weight-disc

I've got 2.5kg's worth that cover me from just finder up to Baader Zoom with Canon 7D attached :)

So looking back at the orders, it all cost less than £20. Down side is I now get bombarded with emails trying to sell me muscle gain powder ;)

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When i first placed a Telrad on the scope, i found a bright star centred the star in a high power EP, then adjusted the Telrad so the same star was centered, thats it never needed adjusting again and when i slew the scope looking through the Telrad its spot on, my Finder scope has a lodestar and is used purely for guiding, although with the Bull's Eye on the PHD graph and setting the timer to 10 seconds this shows faint DSO, and if there centered on the Bull's Eye there also centered in the Telrad and the Sensor on my DSLR, makes DSO hunting, viewing or imagine a real pleasure....The telrad has a dew shield piece of cell foam and a puff from a hair dryer once in a while keeps it clear....

006SCOPE_OBBYVIEW.jpg

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