Celestron C11 Finder Help

[David Hardie]

Hi all. Today I received from FLO my C11 OTA and I'm keen to improve the finder mounting.

On my 8 inch Edge HD I bought a universal Baader finder bracket but obviously the diameter of this scope is larger. I'm not keen on the Celestron holder with it's rubber O ring.

Anyone used anything different on their scopes please? I suppose I could get one of those ADM dovetail bar kits and mount it on that?

Cheers. David

[Guest Vangelis]

I've got a C925. Fitted the Baader 10x60 finder with universal shoe which fits the holes in the ota. It will fit your C11.

[Cosmic Geoff]

I assume the finder in question is the straight-through 9x50 finder on the cast aluminum low profile bracket - the same one I got with my CPC800.

TBH I cannot see anything wrong with this finder at all except that it is straight-thru. I don't like straight thru finders as they give me (all too literally) a severe pain. I have taken the straight thru finder off the CPC800 and fitted in an alternate position a finder shoe and 9x50 RACI Skywatcher finder.   Ideally I would like a red-dot finder as well to act as a finder for the finder as it can be difficult to aim the assembly and get objects into the finder FOV.

My C8 SE has Starsense and a red-dot finder. This is sufficient for visual use. For imaging I can slip on the aforementioned Skywatcher RACI finder to get objects onto the camera chip.

[JeremyS]

12 hours ago, David Hardie said:

I'm not keen on the Celestron holder with it's rubber O ring.

The C11 I bought a few years ago had a pretty poor quality finder holder with the O ring. However, my C9.25 has a better designed holder which works fine. I replaced the finder on the C11 with a Vixen finder which has a much better mount/holder (similar mount/holders are available from other sources). It uses the standard holes to install the finder shoe: no need for dovetail kits.

Pic of the Vixen finder in situ: