Peep sight?

[Bendy]

Sometimes I find it hard to locate objects with my finder, particularly when looking in areas that lack obvious 'guide stars'. Been thinking of options to coarsely align the scope (I.e. Get me in the right ballpark) where I can then switch to the finder to zero in on the object (e.g. Telrad, red dot finder etc.). It's got me wondering if a making and installing simple diy peep sight would suffice (e.g. As per the ones on a gun). Does anyone have any advice/thoughts/experience here?

Regards

Ben

[bojan]

Peep sight and RDF (or Telrad) are the same it terms of accuracy... but RDF and Telrad are visible in the dark, so...

[fbk]

I used cable ties and double sided tape to stick an RDF to the top of my finder:

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[Allan_L]

Hi Ben,
Yes, I find it necessary to use a RDF before the Finder also.
They are inexpensive and easy to instal.

I have previously tried a Telrad, but did not find that as easy to use, although a lot of people here swear by them.

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: Plus 1 on the Telrad , people only have trouble with them because they mount them to close to the eyepiece end only use one eye .

They work awsome if about 600 mm away from the eye and keeping both eyes open .

Thats a good idea as well Fraser .

Brian.

[Bendy]

Thanks for the advice everyone, certainly food for thought.

Brian - Re telrad - I've a dob. Wondering if the riser would help in using a telrad just to get your head away from the scope?

https://www.bintel.com.au/product/telrad-riser-base-2-inch/

Ben

[fbk]

I've never used a telrad but I'm sure they work brilliantly compared to a finder.. a riser would help get your head away from the tube. Anything I can't find quickly with my finder I push-to using coordinates from sky safari along with az setting circle and digital altitude gauge. It makes finding targets much quicker and easier while still leaving some hands-on aspect to the process, I really enjoy it.

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[Bendy]

Thanks Fraser, the setting circle approach looks great, I don't know whether my handyman skills are up to the task though - I imagine that a fair bit of precision is required.

I had a bit of a play with a short section of pvc pipe attached to my finder with zip ties last night. It wasn't too bad, certainly better than simply trying to sight along the edge of the scope. The only issue was not being able to discern the inner section of the pipe from the cloudy background sky in seeking to ensure that I was looking straight down the barrel. Out with the black paint tonight...

[tempestwizz]

I have mounted a green laser pointer on my dobs. It allows for quick relocation from star to star and gets scope pointed accurately enough for the more accurate sighting methods to kick in. Most often accurate enough for the main scope lens to spot the target. Also find when sort of star-hopping can more easily place the beam roughly say ⅔ or whatever between obvious stars. Easier to judge this way than by looking through rdf or even telrad if the reference points are further apart.

[Wavytone]

The snag with almost all finders - red dot, telrads and simple sights - is that for anything above 60 degrees altitude you have to be a contortionist to look through them without risking a permanent neck injury.

The best solution IMHO bar none is a push-to scope fitted with encoders communicating wirelessly with SkySafari on an iPhone or iPad, at a convenient viewing angle. Once calibrated, no matter where the scope is pointing it's easy to use SkySafari as the finder and put objects smack in the centre of the field of a telescope even at 200X. I've seen and used several scopes like this that had no traditional finders at all - and didn't need one. To the extent I'm now assembling such a setup, myself.

GOTO mounts are ok provided they actually work and the mechanical and optical axes are accurately orthogonal. But few scopes actually achieve the required mechanical precision.

[fbk]

I seriously considered putting encoders and a Nexus on mine.. I still might one day, but there's a significant cost involved.

Ben the setting circle approach can be as simple as blu-tacking a laminated printed circle on the base of your mount (assuming you have a dob) to read the compass bearing. Altitude is read by a $35 digital gauge which are accurate to a fraction of a degree. And as you found, looking at pitch black skies really needs some sort of illuminated pointer like an RDF or telrad.