Lumicon 80mm super finder

[25585]

I have had this for a few years but recently put it into use. 

The finder has an 80mm OG and 300mm focal length, a neat little portable refractor by itself. 

It comes with an attachment plate for mounting, not rings. The scope attatches easily to the plate for removal and remounting. 

It is heavy being 2.5lbs! Focusing is by a locking helical tube. Mine came with a right side up prism and cross hair 1.25 eye piece (for 12x mag), but the latter can be used as a straight through viewer - or any other 1.25 you wish. 

To compensate for the weight, including eps I use, I fitted a small child's bicycle pannier bags to the mirror cel end of my dob which were weighted with balancing scale weights. 

Using the finder was great. Bright image and cross hair made finding moderately bright stars easy, smooth zoning from RDF to Lumicon to main scope with ep for 20x. The Lumicon with cross hair ep gives about 3 deg FOV. 

It is heavy though. I have seen adverts for a 50mm OG version. I chose the 80 to get brighter views (hello Polaris!) and the model as wider FOV eps can be used if no cross hair site needed. 

[Stu]

I have one of these too as a mega Finder. I use it with a RACI Prism so I get an upright view which can make it tricky to reach focus but I've found a combo which works. With an illuminated reticle eyepiece it works very well.

[25585]

Can you recommend an illuminated reticle eye piece? More eye relief the better.