How often do you align your finderscope ?

[maximR]

For me, everytime ! It's so hard to align my finderscope, very tricky, I hate the screws. Planning to buy a red dot...

[steppenwolf]

I normally check mine each session but mine is quite easy - does yours have one sprung non adjustable retainer and two adjustable bolts? If not and you have the type with a total of 6 bolts then you have my condolences!

[haitch]

I check it whenever I re-attach it as I take it off to store it but 9 times out of 10 it is still aligned. I have it side by side with an RDF as I like both. RDFs are great for quickly pointing to a known spot or visible object in the sky but not much help for star hopping to a very faint fuzzy.

[Jamie]

I normally check it at the beginning of each observing session... Just to be sure, but it's normally there or there abouts......

[Moonshane]

I also detach mine and realign each time (and use a Telrad). many suggest you do this in daytime but I just look at Polaris as it doesn't move. this makes it easy even in darkness.

[Llamanaut]

i check mine before every session, i use it side by side with a telrad and like to get them both zeroed in, saves a lot of hassle

[Psychobilly]

If you set it up in daylight tweak it in on a Celestial target you may be suprised how much difference there is...

[Earl]

I check it every time, but for the life of me I do not understand why these things have a cross hair.... It covers the star !!! the center should be clear.

[crazyjedi]

My finder seems to stay fairly accurate. If i have to disassemble my scope for transportation (usually to Wales and back) then i'll give it a day time alignment and then fine adjust it on a good bright star when i start viewing. As i say it doesn't seem to vary much, even after i clonked it good and proper with my face a few days ago. A little tweak of the adjustment screw and it was dead centre again. My face still smarts tho.

[OzDave]

Hmm, I was gonna say that I aligned my finders once when I took delivery of them and they have stayed pretty well aligned after that. I have the type with one sprung "bolt" and two adjuster bolts spaced at 120deg around the finderscope holder.

However, maybe I should recheck it more often. I tend only to do that if I know I've accidently knocked the adjustment screws.

Dave

[haitch]

I check it every time, but for the life of me I do not understand why these things have a cross hair.... It covers the star !!! the center should be clear.

I just set it to the top left corner of the cross rather than the centre.

I've also replaced the cross hair in mine with fly fishermens' "spider web" (used for tying flies) which is a lot finer and obscures less. (I had to do that because I shone my laser through because my over active mind kept asking me how it would diffuse the beam but instead it burnt the cross hair :rolleyes:

[maximR]

I guess I just have to replace mine with a red dot finder. Mine is with the 3 bolts one, without the spring. I just have to think of a way to stick the red dot...

[maximR]

Oh, may I know is the Telrad finder attached to the scope when it came, or did you guys mod it ? If so, how did you attach it ?

[John]

Oh, may I know is the Telrad finder attached to the scope when it came, or did you guys mod it ? If so, how did you attach it ?

They come with a base plate that attaches to the scope tube with double sided tape (really sticky stuff !). The Telrad has a big footprint for what it does so if space is an issue think about the Rigel Quikfinder as it's virtually as good as the Telrad and takes up far less "tube room".