RDF, Finder scope or both?

[Holderness]

I recently purchased my fist scope, a Skywatcher 130m, which came with an RDF. I'm finding this a bit tricky to use especially for fainter objects. Would I be better replacing the RDF with a spotter scope such as the Skywatcher 6X30 Finder Scope? This one comes with the bracket and Shoe.

Is it possible to have both mounted on the same scope or would I just replace the RDF. If I mount both is it easy to fit the new shoe?

Thanks,

Mark

[AlexB]

I've got only a finder scope and to be honest, it's quite tricky with even that scope's narrowing FOV to find stuff quickly. My inexperienced vote goes for both!

EDIT: I think light pollution has a lot to answer for, finders used to do all the historic astronomers ok, but these days I think we need to triangulate a lot more with higher magnitude stars/objects in order to find our targets.

[Rob L]

As a complete newbie, nothing has helped me more than my Rigel Quikfinder, or better still for your size of scope a Terlad Finder (too cramped for room on mine).

It is without doubt the single best purchase I have made.

[John]

A 30mm finder won't be able to show faint objects but it will show the starfields in more detail than the naked eye can which can then help "star hopping" to the target object.

Occasionally I find you need both an optical finder (I use 50mm ones) and an RDF but most of the time the RDF alone plus a good starchart and a low power, widefield eyepiece in the scope will do the job. That's how I tracked down the supernova SN2011b which is around 13th magnitude and located in a 10th galaxy - I would not have been able to see either in an optical finder of course.

[Holderness]

Thanks, That gives me something to think about.

If I went down the route of having both RDF and Finder Scope how easy is it to fit to the scope? How does the shoe attach to the tube?

[John]

A finder shoe usually attaches with 2 screws so drilling the tube would be needed to fit another one of those.

The Rigel Quikfinder and Telrad use mouting plates held by strong double sided sticky pads so no drilling required. They are also about the best RDF's around IMHO.

[jgs001]

Personally, I really struggle to use finder scopes, and much prefer to use a red dot...

[Psychobilly]

At one time I had the finder, and RDF and GLP on my scope.. the GLP was handy for "pointing" out to others what you were lookign at...

These days I tend to use the output of the cameras as "finders"...

I have just bought one of these to try on my DSLR's via a hotshoe adaptor....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330405541076&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Billy...