Telrad on Omni 120xlt

[Tdeitr]

1.  Just purchased a Telrad, haven't picked it up yet, for a Celestron Omni XLT 120. It came with a nice diagonal magnified finder, but I'm having a hard time getting used to it when I had a Telrad on my previous SCT 8". Finding things quick was a snap with the Telrad! This getting used to the movement of a german equatorial (Celestron AVX) compared to an Alt/AZ is giving me fits trying to look down in a diagonal finder even if it is magnified and trying to find the star I'm looking right up at. With a Telrad it's a no brainer, at least for visible stars/planets. My question is, How do I get it to fit onto a Celestron Omni XLT 120? Seems my rings are in the way that hold the scope onto the mount and there isn't enough room to get an 8" Telrad to fit without hitting the rings. I suppose I can just shift the scope a bit more? I feel bad that I can't seem to use the expensive nice finder that was sold to me with the scope by an astrophotographer, but I feel like an idiot trying to line up stars with it. Maybe I'm missing something? As for the tape on my scope, I'm not so concerned. You can remove just about any gummy tape with Goo Be Gone or a 3M spray on adhesive remover, if necessary. Anybody with photos on mounting the Telrad to a refractor, please share. Thank you!

[John]

I would probably choose a Rigel Quickfinder to go on a refractor - it's "footprint" is much smaller than a Telrad.

That said you can mount Telrads on such scopes:

Some people put the finder base on the tube rings. Here they have modified the base and use a finder shoe to hold it to a tube ring:

[joe aguiar]

yes those ways or what i do i have both a rigel for smaller scopes whats good about this it already comes with 2 bases, and i have telrad for bigger scopes but if you dont want to have 2 different kind like me then both ways like up above.

joejaguar

[jock1958]

Might be a case of becoming a little creative if you have room on your respective mount.

I mounted my Telrad on my Skytee 2 adjacent to my refractor using a DIY metal plate, also used similar ideas on my Giro Ercole & Vixen Porta mounts.

[Paz]

I prefer to use telrads wherever possible, I have one on my st120 using plastic ties to hold down the base and sleeping mat to protect the tube...