finder scope questions

[nightfisher]

I will need a small finder for a grab an go that i plan to buy, i have a 6x30 celestron that would be nice but its lost its cross hairs in transit so dont think it will be usable again, but i had considered adding a Baader skysurfer 3 to my 120ED so it sounds like it might be a good idea to just pull the trigger and have this for both set ups (Mak 102)

lets have your opinions roll in

[John]

Personally I find a 6x30 RACI finder the most useful on my ED120 but thats because I spend most of the time observing double stars and planets with it. I do have a Vixen RDF for the occasional time I use it for DSO's.

The Baader Skysurfer III is a pretty good RDF for it's price though,having owned one sometime back.

[Moonshane]

I have the skysurfer iii and it's a great little finder. I generally use an optical finder too though and most use my raci 6*30 although sometimes lp creates problems and my 9*50 provides a more detailed view for finding tricky stuff.

[mikeDnight]

55 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

I will need a small finder for a grab an go that i plan to buy, i have a 6x30 celestron that would be nice but its lost its cross hairs in transit so dont think it will be usable again, but i had considered adding a Baader skysurfer 3 to my 120ED so it sounds like it might be a good idea to just pull the trigger and have this for both set ups (Mak 102)

lets have your opinions roll in

Jules, I have a 6×30 SW finder that I have no use for. It's technically brand new, though I've had it for two years. I bought it for a equinox 80 but sold the scope before the finder arrived, it's never been on a scope!

As I'll be seeing you in the next couple of days or so, its yours if you want it. No charge!

Mike

 

[nightfisher]

1 minute ago, mikeDnight said:

Jules, I have a 6×30 SW finder that I have no use for. It's technically brand new, though I've had it for two years. I bought it for a equinox 80 but sold the scope before the finder arrived, it's never been on a scope!

As I'll be seeing you in the next couple of days or so, its yours if you want it. No charge!

Mike

 

Excellent, will knock some of other scope for you, very kind

[Paz]

My ideal finder set up is always a 9x50RACI plus either a telrad or a RDF, but with the ST120 just an RDF on its own is ok for grab and go or travelling light, although some star hops with the ST120 take a bit longer to navigate without a RACI as it can only cover about 2.75 degrees by itself with the longest focal length eyepiece I've got for it. The ST80 only needs an RDF as it can do 4 degrees on its own.

[Nyctimene]

I second Paz and his arguments. Since 16 years I'm using a Baader SkySurfer III together with the Baader Vario 10x60 RACI finder on the 18", and am still very pleased with this combo.

A few weeks ago I added another SkySurfer to my 80/400 grab-and-go-frac. The new SkySurfer III also acts as a very precise sunseeker in this setup for solar white light observations.

Stephan