Getting Tal Alcor onto target

[oldfella]

Hi, I have a Tal alcor telescope it has two peep holes to find targets, tonight I tried the Alcor and found it very difficult to find anything, I found the moon by chance and was very surprised how impressively sharp it was, but my query is how do others find their targets.

[Peter_D]

Hi, 

If you don't want to drill into the telescope to mount a finder shoe (drilling would be a pity to do to a classic scope in my opinion), attaching a Telrad finder is an option:

Clear Skies

Peter

 

 

 

 

[markse68]

Hi Oldfella, lovely little scope the Alcor but as you found the peephole sight is a bit of a pita! It would be fine for terrestrial sighting but anywhere near the zenith and you have to stand on your head to get yourself aligned with it and your target- not ideal! (the idea as i’m sure you know is to get the 2 holes concentric,  with your target in the centre)

I mounted a red dot finder to my Tal-1 in a non permanent but pretty solid fashion using a short weaver/picatinny rail available cheaply on ebay. Couple of large jubilee clips with tape under to protect the paint fix it very securely. 

There are loads of quite cheap “air soft” red dot finders to choose from- decent metal body ones start around £20 I think. Finding one that goes dim enough is more the problem. I bought an expensive russian one to go with my russian scope and use it on other scopes too- it’s really nice. But i’m sure there are other cheaper ones that work just fine. Look for one with the clamping knob so you can remove it quick and easy.

A red dot or rigel type finder really makes target finding quick and easy and just as importantly very comfortable!

Good luck,

Mark