finderscope upgrade

[Dean]

Have just come in from using my skyliner 300p. It has been a great evening but I am finding the finderscope hard work. I got on quite well with the red dot finder on my sky watcher 130pm and was wondering if anyone had any advice on what I could use to make it easer aiming the finder scope on to the area I need it to be.

Thanks to centroid for the advice on the refurbishment of the old 8” I may just look in to that it would good to get it back into good working order.

[The Warthog]

I upgraded my 6x30 straight-through finder to a 7x50 right-angle finder, and I don't believe I'll ever go back. I use a red dot finder for putting myself in the right area, then fine-tune with the RA finder. It is excellent, and saves my neck from a lot of wear. I sometimes use a mirror with my red dot finder to aim when the red dot finder is in a really awkward position.

[Dean]

What I am doing is looking through the finder scope with both eyes open and trying to line up the finderscope with the spot I want to aim for in the sky. but when I look through the finder scope I then need to adjust the telescopes position to get the object centred. Will the red dot finder overcome that problem?

[The Warthog]

I'm not completely sure I follow you, but you must calibrate your finderscope to the telescope. This is best done by finding a distant object, in daylight, centring it in the scope, and then centring the cross hairs of the finder, or the red dot, on the object without moving the scope. You can also use Polaris for this, as it doesn't move a whole lot.

Once this is done, you can put either the red dot or the crosshairs on the object, and your scope will be pointing at the object in the finder.

[jollyjack]

Has the Skyliner 300 got a 9x50 finder? Would have thought that if properly aligned with the tube, it would give a bright enough image of the object or stars nearby to allow you to star hop onto your target. Am thinking of adding a 9x50 to my scope when I buy it (6x30 in the spec). Experience of a stopped-down 6x30 on a smaller ota has been dissapointing even when properly aligned.

Can't remember where, but i have seen online articles about aligning the finder with the scope. As said above, fairly straitforward. Try google or search this and other forums.

[Dean]

Thanks I have worked out what I have been doing wrong now, and I think the red dot finder is the way forward to work along side the finderscope

The skyliner 300p does come with a 9x50 straight through finerscope. The image through the scope seems pretty good but then again I have nothing else to compare it with.

[MartinB]

The skyliner finder scope is very easy to adjust since it has a spring loaded retainer along with 2 calibration screws. Much easier than 3 calibration screws. Red dot finders also need aligning with the scope of course!