Finderscope for Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ?

[John 1969jo]

Hi all,

I posted a while ago looking for advice on a scope/set up for my disabled son who can't physically look through an eyepiece but was really into astronomy. I got some great advice from here and ended up getting a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ telescope and an Orion Starshoot 2 USB eyepiece camera so my son could view on his PC.

The Orion camera wasn't great and I then bought an Svbony SV305 eyepiece camera, which we've had decent success with viewing the moon.

I set the scope up outside and have a long lead from the eyepiece to my sons PC indoors and he can then see what we're viewing. 

It can be a little complicated as I have to view through the eyepiece to make sure we're set up OK, replace the eyepiece with the camera, run indoors to see what's on screen then run back out to focus everything and also adjust the scope to keep everything in shot. It's certainly keeping me fit! I've just ordered a motor drive so I'm hoping that that takes care of the RA and Dec adjustments!

As I mentioned, we've had some success with the moon but we'd like to try a bit further afield so I was looking to fit a finderscope to the telescope to save me swapping out the eyepiece for the camera every time we try to focus on something new.

Can anyone offer any advice on a finderscope, or even any advice on how to improve my set up would be welcome.

Thanks,

John

[DaveL59]

Hi John

The motor drive would only be for the RA axis unless you got a dual motor version. You'd need to make sure the mount is set up so the RA axis is aimed north and have the latitude set up so that once on target the RA drive will track reasonably to keep the object in view.

For a finder are you thinking something electronic, or a manual unit such as an optical or RDF? Bear in mind that the finder will help you get the target in view for the lower mag (25mm) eyepiece but you'd then need to centre it possibly using a higher mag eyepiece (10mm) so that it'd be on the sensor of the camera you are using. 

Unfortunately making the EP and camera parfocal isn't likely to be easy so you may still have to run to and fro to tweak. You might have some success fitting parfocal rings to the eyepiece so they match the camera without needing to adjust the focuser position, assuming there's only a small amount of travel, or measure how much travel and get an extender tube of the required length. A remote focuser that you can operate from the PC would be easiest but likely won't be cheap if even possible on your scope.

[Alfian]

A problem with the Celestron 130, because the native finder is built in (and not very good) it doesn't have the kind of shoe that most optical finders use. When I had the 130eq I found the easiest solution was to fit a Rigel Quickfinder which is a reticule type red dot finder. Its base sticks to the tube using the (very) sticky pads privided. Its lightweight and a bit plasticky but it works very nicely. Although I have long parted with the 130eq the Rigel is still going strong years on.

[John]

57 minutes ago, Alfian said:

A problem with the Celestron 130, because the native finder is built in (and not very good) it doesn't have the kind of shoe that most optical finders use. When I had the 130eq I found the easiest solution was to fit a Rigel Quickfinder which is a reticule type red dot finder. Its base sticks to the tube using the (very) sticky pads privided. Its lightweight and a bit plasticky but it works very nicely. Although I have long parted with the 130eq the Rigel is still going strong years on.

I agree with Ian - the Rigel Quikfinder is a good addition to this scope:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/rigel-quikfinder-compact-reflex-sight.html

I use on on my 12 inch dobsonian and it's lasted years. The battery seems to go on for a long time as well, as long as I remember to turn it off at the end of a session !