Pointing a Dob to approximately the right bit of sky

[mr_belowski]

Having recently bought a nice 8 inch Dobsonian and a right angle finder (9x50), I've been enjoying the ever-so-brief clear spells and getting more familiar with the night sky. I'm happy with a manual mount and there's no shortage of reference material and tools to help navigate the night sky, but does anyone else find it a pain to get the scope pointing in approximately the right direction? With a RACI finder it's surprisingly awkward to get thing pointing in the right patch of sky, especially for stuff up at the zenith.

 

As I often find myselt looking along the side of the finder scope trying to work out if I'm even in the right ballpark before bothering to look through it, I wondered if it would help to make some kind of crude alignment sight like this, think it'll work?

 

 

[Pixies]

One word.

 

 

Telrad.

[Pixies]

I do admire the Lego skilz though.

I used to have a plastic tube tied to the finder bracket to act as a very basic finder.

[westmarch]

Many dob users have a red dot finder, mounted beside the RACI, to get in the approximate vicinity and then switch to the RACI finder. HTH

John

[mr_belowski]

Hopefully it'll at least kind of work, I know a telrad or Rigel or similar is the proper solution but I do like an occasional bodge

[apaulo]

as john just said red dot then finder, i use them on a dual bracket of ebay. works a treat.

[wulfrun]

Telrad, Rigel, RDF or, if you want a home-made thingy, how about this:

http://www.jerryoltion.com/Split_pupil_finder.htm

[mr_belowski]

ooo, i like the look of the split pupil finder, i'll have to have a rummage around for a suitable old lens

[NGC 1502]

The above posts have definitely nailed it. Telrad/Rigel/RDF/simple DIY aiming device/ whatever works best for each individual.

[Spile]

I went through the same journey https://astro.catshill.com/finding-and-finder-scopes/