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Old 11-07-2015, 01:03 AM
ausastronomer (John Bambury)
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Shoalhaven Heads, NSW
Posts: 2,618
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alasdair View Post
I'm wondering if (a) I should get another finderscope, or (b) learn some Useful Techniques to manage the one I have?

Hi,

I would persevere with what you have at the moment. I have been observing for a long time and have always preferred a straight through finder over a RA finder. Although a TELRAD and a RA optical finder which I have on my 18" Obsession also works pretty well.

The smaller the dob and the taller the observer the harder it is to use a straight through optical finder. I am only 5'3" so that helps me a lot in this regard. I have 2 x 10" dobs (a truss scope and a tube scope) and both have straight through finders on them. The main thing with using a straight through finder is to learn to bend your knees, get down on your haunches and look upwards, rather than trying to bend over and look through the finder with your head sideways, or upside down. Try this for a while and see if you can come to grips with it. Otherwise a RA finder and a TELRAD may be a better option for you. To be honest I find a RA finder without a TELRAD to be pretty useless as you then don't have much to align with along the scopes optical axis.

Cheers,
John B
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