I'll get my coat

[Spile]

I was looking at the Pleiades last night thinking they looked a little disappointing before I realised that I was looking through my finder instead of my eyepiece. Another senior moment.

[DaveL59]

I've done that often with the little Tal-M where you need to slide the finder outward to remove it from the optical path between eyepiece and secondary mirror. That said even with the barlow and extender in circuit the wee finder gave surprisingly good views, only giveaway was I'd be thinking "is that it, thought it'd look bigger... DOH!" 🙂 

[Sunshine]

30 minutes ago, Spile said:

I was looking at the Pleiades last night thinking they looked a little disappointing before I realised that I was looking through my finder instead of my eyepiece. Another senior moment.

It’s too bad you weren’t blown away by the view as you could have just sold the scope and kept the finder, the ultimate grab and go!

[Franklin]

I too braved the cold last night and after viewing Jupiter, like you observed the Pleiades. I was using a small 6x30 right-angled finder (Skywatcher) and the view it gave was quite limited to say the least. However, it did do it's job as my SD103S had M45 perfectly centered and the star cluster filled the entire 83deg field of my SSW14mm eyepiece, looking like the proverbial "Diamonds on black velvet". I even thought for a moment that I was getting a hint of Merope nebulosity, but then realized my breath had misted up the eyepiece! Doh!

[jjohnson3803]

28 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

It’s too bad you weren’t blown away by the view as you could have just sold the scope and kept the finder, the ultimate grab and go!

😁  I recently bought a 50mm RACI finder that accepts regular EPs.  $45.  It's quite a good little scope and has become my ultimate grab-n-go.  There's a long user thread on Cloudy Nights if anyone's interested:  AT50 

Edited December 16, 2022 by jjohnson3803

[Sunshine]

12 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I even thought for a moment that I was getting a hint of Merope nebulosity, but then realized my breath had misted up the eyepiece! Doh!

😅 funny cause I had the exact same experience, once. For a second I thought my 4” refractor was punching way above it’s aperture.

Edited December 16, 2022 by Sunshine

[markse68]

Funny but the Pleiades seems to suit the finder view more than my scopes- in the 8" F8 I cant really fit it all in and it really needs the black surroundings I think, and in the 6" f5 I can get it all in but without a coma corrector it looks a bit rubbish  I'm sure a short refractor would suit it better

Mark

[Spile]

I prefer M45 at 29X but the coat hanger was perfect in my RACI finder.

[PeterStudz]

I find that the Pleiades looks best in my 8x40 binoculars. For me it helps when it’s surrounded by a decent amount of dark sky.